Ranking of university libraries and a guideline proposal for Turkey

There is no active and up-to-date system known for the ranking method of university libraries. In this study, the aim is to conduct detailed research on the ranking of university libraries, to compile and analyze opinions and suggestions, to conduct interviews with librarians with 10+ years of experience in university libraries in order to contribute to the importance of the subject and to determine the fundamental metrics for the ranking of university libraries. The ultimate and concrete objective of this research is to create a guideline for the ranking of university libraries in Turkey. The primary scope of this research is university libraries affiliated with the Higher Education Council in Turkey. Drawing on the experiences of the libraries in Asia, Europe, America, and Australia, valuable information was collected regarding the ranking of university libraries. In this framework, 13 library employees' opinions were taken to be benefited from the experiences of 6 different countries. In this research, descriptive method and questionnaire, interview, content analysis techniques were used. The descriptive method is used to explain the relations between concepts, events, and conditions regarding the subject. In addition, the opinions of the librarians representing the overall population are considered with the purposive sampling method. According to the results of this study, significant research has emerged that leads to positive competition among libraries, identifies areas of improvement, enhances visibility, makes a contribution in terms of change, strengthens the communication between libraries and university management, contributes to the collection, analysis, and sharing of qualitative data about libraries. As a result of this study, a guideline for ranking university libraries in Turkey has been created. This guideline has the qualifications to apply to universities in many other countries as well as Turkey. It will provide significant contributions to libraries, librarians, users of libraries, researchers, and anyone interested in this field. Besides, this study will provide a basis for further studies in this field.