LIBRARY CONSORTIA : INITIATIVES IN INDIA Presentation By Baljit Kaur Assistant Librarian

1. LIBRARY CONSORTIA : INITIATIVES IN INDIA Presentation By Baljit Kaur Assistant Librarian Bhai Gurdas Library Guru Nanak Dev University

2. INTRODUCTION • The information revolution lead to the development of the world wide web. • Libraries have changed their traditional role as store houses of information to vigorous disseminators of information. • The rapid progress of Information Technology has urged the libraries to adopt new philosophies and technologies for collections development and reduce the cost of information. • Escalation of the prices of the information resources year after year makes impossible to buy everything that is required. • Here comes library co-operation and resource-sharing as viable solutions to the problems mentioned above.

3. LIBRARY CONSORTIA BASIC CONCEPT • The concept of consortia was evolved from the concept of co-operation and co-ordination. • Consortia is a generic term to indicate a group of libraries that are working together for a common goal whether to expand cooperation for traditional library services such as collection development or electronic media. • The library consortia mainly deal with resource sharing in digital or electronic format. Consortia are commonly formed to increase the purchasing capacity of the collaborating institutions to expand the resource availability and to offer automated services.

4. In other words it is described as a group of organizations whose purpose is to collectively facilitate and support the work of a service program in ways that add material and human resources beyond those available to each organization individually. Consortium is also a formal organization of two or more institutions which seek to attain specific goals through cooperation. Normally, in consortia an agreement in combination or group is formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of anyone member. This concept also brings together a group of libraries or other organizations that form a partnership to achieve a goal, such as shared cataloguing or resource sharing, which cannot be achieved by the individuals alone.

5. FACTORS NECESSITATING CONSORTIA • Literature Explosion: The voluminous growth of literature had made it impossible for library to attain self-sufficiency. • Limited Resources: Limitation in finance, space and manpower also stress upon the need for libraries going for consortium. • Varied Demands of User's: The number of users of libraries is increasing day-by-day. The access to information varies from user to user. • Laws of Library Science: Laws of library science like Every Reader His/Her Book, Every Book Its Reader, Books for All, Free flow of Information and Universal Availability of Publications etc., have emphasis on the libraries to provide their users every reading material they are interested in. • Professionalization of Library Service: This has been the most important influence on resource sharing or forming a consortium. The changing role of the librarian as a conservator to a disseminator of knowledge or gatekeeper of information to gateways to information has enhanced the value of library consortia.

6. REASONS FOR FORMING CONSORTIA Better sharing of existing resources and jointly acquiring new resources at great savings. Identifying and addressing common needs arising from development in information technology. Providing enhanced library services with an emphasis on access to new electronic resources including databases and services offered through the internet and the world wide web. Expediting inter library borrowing, which has evolved into providing as many electronic resources as possible at the lowest cost to consortia members. .

7. BENEFITS OF CONSORTIA • Consortia can provide libraries with a single point of access reference control and better management of finances for all its electronic resources. • Consortia permit successful deployment and desktop access; to electronic resources at a highly discounted rate of subscription and at the best terms of Licenses • Consortia meet with the increasing pressures of diminishing budget, increased user's demand and rising cost of journal subscriptions. • Users can carry out searches on a single table contents of database and access, view, download or print full text Electronic articles from any publisher provided the library has a valid subscription.

8. Consortia provide archival access to the collection and also back-up facility for print copies of subscription with which the consortia member can get access to print collection ifrequired. • Consortia members will access more information without worrying about space, shelving, binding etc. • The quality and quantity of research of the member institutions of consortia will improve with increased access to national and international full text journals and on line databases.

9. IMPORTANT LIBRARY CONSORTIA IN INDIA • INDEST - Indian National Digital Library In Science And Technology . • CSIRConsortium • UGC-INFONET E-Journal Consortium. • FORSA Forum For Resource Sharing In Astronomy And Astrophysics. • IIMs Consortium. • HELINET - Health Science Library and Information Network

11. CONCLUSIONS • Today, all libraries are facing the problem of financial crunch due to the rising subscription costs of periodicals. • . For research based sustainability a consortium is the most suitable approach. • Consortia working well with in similar organizations having common objectives, similar needs and similar situation. • Collaboration is an essential facet of modern library management . • To sum up, consortia is the backbone of library co-operation. • Consortia allows access to electronic information resources while sharing the cost of access.

12. Consortia saves physical space, time and cost. • The Consortia for Indian libraries can be considered as a major step towards library co­operation in sharing electronic resources. • . India being one of the leading IT powers in the world is quite active and sensitive to the emerging changes. • It has found quite a reasonable number of library consortia at national level. • The FORSA, INDEST, UGC-INFONET, CSIR, IIMs, HELINET , etc. are some of the examples of the emerging library consortia in India.

13. THANKS