Resourse Sharing among Libraries

RESOURCE SHARING AMONG LIBRARIES: ROLE OF CONSORTIA

J.V.J.S.RAMA DEVI
LIBRARIAN
Y.D. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
BANGALORE-560062


ABTRACT
The paper deals with the need and importance of Resource Sharing Network. The objective of this paper is to explore the possibilities of developing resource sharing strategies highlighting the merits and demerits of library consortia.

1. INFORMATION RESOURCE

The concept of information resource is often not defined properly. The documents held by a library provide information sought by users and hence called information sources and more precisely documentary information sources. But such documents are also referred to as information resources. That is, the terms ‘information sources’ and ‘information resources’ are used interchangeably. But it is to be noted that an information source only provides information, but a resource is one, which like capital or labor, gives rise to something new. As a library generates all its services on the basis of the information sources available with it, such sources are called information resources. Libraries have so long been procuring information resources in traditional printed format. But today these resources are available in various other formats, such as audio-visual, digital, etc. However, resources in electronic format i.e. e-resources have become more popular these days, because of their distinct advantages.




2. RESOURCE SHARING

Keeping the above in view, if we now try to define resource sharing, it will not merely mean mutual sharing of information sources available in different libraries, it will mean utilizing the information sources of one library for generating services by another library.

3. CONCEPT & SIGNIFICANCE OF RESOURCE SHARING


Generally, the concept of Library Co-operation emerged for rendering better services to user’s community through borrowing & lending of documents in formal manner. Library Resources is the term that applies to personnel, material, functions or activities available in a library for satisfying the human needs & demands to acquire their desired knowledge. Library co-operation is a very old concept and a form of resource sharing. The new object of resource sharing has changed the old concept due to multi-dimensional growth of published documents through R&D activities in recent past, cost of the information, advancement of newly invented technologies for information processing and dissemination, etc. Resource sharing entails apportioning, allocating, distributing or contributing something on a voluntary basis for mutual benefits among a group of libraries with a view to achieving best utilization of resources by the ultimate users at a wider level. For better utilization of resources, participating libraries should come together and co-operate in two broad areas: (a) developing the collection on shared basis; and (b) improving services for exploiting such collection. The conventional library is seriously affected by some barriers of information communication, such as indifference of the lending library, conservative attitude, distance, language, cost, time, etc. for inter-library loan. And there are also several constraints to resource sharing in the print environment as it existed till recently: (a) open access to shared resource is not possible; (b) service depends upon library performance; (c) access to shared resource at a cost; (d) access to shared resource by price hike and devaluation in rupee value; (e) availability of library financial resources not possible; and (f) authenticity of collected information resources on Internet. The development in information science and technology (i.e. computer technology and telecommunication technology) is the only panacea to overcome all the barriers of resource sharing program.


4. INTRODUCTION


Due to the exponential growth and the increasing cost of information resources, it is difficult for a library to acquire all the documents, which are required by the user of a Library. A library Collection could be classified into two groups – one satisfy the core interests of the institution to which the library belongs, and other serving peripheral interest.

Faced with financial crunch, while a library could restrict acquisition of materials in the peripheral areas, it tries its best not shed anything from its core acquisition list. Therefore in a collective development situation, it is logical for a library to look up the other institutions for meeting its peripheral interest. Even in this situation a library can drop an item from the core item to the same ensured by another library in the neighborhood. To achieve aforesaid objectives various library and information center networks were emerged. A number of resource sharing networks has been observed at local, regional, national and international levels. Normally three levels of Library networks are seen in India include Metropolitan Library network (MAN), Country wide Network like INFLIBNET (For University libraries) and sectoral networks like BTISNET, ENVIS, and FOSTIS etc. These Networks are working according to their objectives of providing information resources to its member libraries rationalizing acquisition and utilization of information resources providing current awareness services helping to automate their member libraries.

Information is considered as a vital resource for communication/ dissemination of knowledge of one individual to another from the very early stage of human civilization to till today and thereby has become an inevitable element of all human activities and developments. The rapid progress of information technology through R & D activities all over the world now tries to satisfy the information need of the human being in diverse manner. The explosion of information, in multidimensional form and voluminous development has urged the libraries to adopt new philosophies and technologies for collection development and reduce the costs of information. Today, most of the librarians are faced with economic problems, especially in developing countries to collect all the new generated information and to satisfy the high degree of aspiration for knowledge of the users. The main task of a librarian is to adjust the input resources with the desired output by adopting various alternatives for taking effective decisions and extending the services smoothly. As the information demand of the user to a greater extent is beyond the control of the capacity of librarians much of the exercise rests on the input resources.

5. LIBRARY CONSORTIUM


It is equally true, as well as applicable, for all types of libraries / information centers not to hold the full stock of information resources or to procure all information which may be in demand by its clientele. Even not a single library/information centre can meet the thrust of knowledge of all the readers from its stock of information up to the fullest extent. To solve this problem library co-operation started long ago, such as, library networks, ILL, document delivery, library consortium etc. which are internationally accepted, but at present the more accepted system of resource sharing is library consortia that has come into existence with a wide coverage. This concept is considered to be a metamorphosis brought by the fast changing information environment for supporting better library services through joint actions.
According to Oxford English Dictionary ‘Consortium’ means temporary cooperation of a number of powers, companies etc. for a common purpose. It is an association of similar type of organization / institution who are engaged for producing and servicing the common things / for providing services for a specific purpose of its users. Library consortium is a ‘community’ (a cooperative) of two or more information agencies which have formally agreed to co-ordinate cooperate or consolidate certain function to achieve mutual objectives. It is an association of a group of library to achieve mutually the joint benefits. Consortia may be formed on a local, regional, national, or international basis; on a functional or format basis or on a subject basis.

6. TYPES OF CONSORTIA

Library consortia function in different ways. During the last three decades, libraries have developed a variety of organizational models. At one end of the spectrum are the loosely affiliated buying clubs where libraries come together primarily to share a discounted rate on electronic journals and databases, while on the other end are consortia that are tightly integrated organizations sharing a variety of resources which require a long term commitment and collaborative decision making at all levels. Theoretically, consortia may be of following types depending on their characteristics.


From the point of view of type of libraries forming the consortium there can be two types of consortia:
Consortia of multi-type libraries: In this type of consortium participating libraries are of different types, such as public, academic and special.
Consortia of same type of libraries: The members of such a consortium are of same type, such as consortium of public libraries, consortium of academic libraries, etc. CSIR E-Journals Consortium is such a consortium.
From the point of view of geographical region of coverage, the consortia may be of following types:
Local level consortia: This consists of libraries situated in a particular city, town of district, e.g. BOSLA (Bombay Science Librarians’ Association), which was possibly the first library consortium of the country.
State level consortia: In such a consortium libraries of one particular state participate. There is perhaps no such consortium in the country at present.
National level consortia: Libraries belonging to a country are its members. INDEST is a national level consortium, but covering only libraries of scientific and technical institutions.
Regional level consortia: In such a consortium libraries of a particular region participate.
International level consortia: In this consortium libraries belonging to different countries participate. This may be formed either by individual libraries, such as OCLC, or by bringing different national consortia under one umbrella. Such federation of consortia is known as Meta Consortia, such as International Coalition of Library Consortia, which comprises of nearly 150 library consortia from around the world.

From the point of view of subject or area of coverage there can be two types of consortia:
Single discipline oriented consortia: In such a consortium organizations dealing with same or similar disciplines join hand, such as FORSA (Forum for Resource Sharing in Astronomy and Astrophysics).
Multi-discipline oriented consortia: Such a consortium deals with resources in multiple disciplines. UGC sponsored INFONET is such a consortium, which deals with multiple subjects.
Again from the organizational point of view, there can be two types of consortia:
Loosely knit federation: In such a consortium there is no central body of dedicated staff to look after the consortium activities. Some libraries join hand for some immediate gain for a particular purpose. It is often not of permanent nature.
Tightly knit organization: Such a consortium is of permanent type, having a central body with membership of participating libraries for guiding the activities of the consortium and also some dedicated staff for performing the consortium activities.
Further, from the point of view of basis of formation there are two types of consortia:
Non-sponsored consortia: Such a consortium is formed voluntarily by participating libraries by sharing the expenses. FORSA again is such a consortium.
Sponsored consortia: This type of consortium is sponsored by a central organization and the major expenses are borne by it. Here sometimes the sponsoring body itself carries out the major activities of the consortium. UGC-INFONET is such a consortium.
Obviously, the above categories are not mutually exclusive. Most of the existing consortia naturally fall in more than one category.

7. THE SALIENT FEATURES FOR LIBRARY CONSORTIUM ARE:

(a) To eliminate the different problems faced by the libraries to provide various services to the users,
(b) To meet the thrust of information of the vast people due to rapid growth of population all over the world,
(c) To cope up with the newly generated knowledge published in different forms, such as, printed and non-printed documents, electronic media on various disciplines, multi-disciplinary and new generated subject areas,
(d) To collect all the documents published at the national and international
level, because of the library financial crunch; and
(d) To overcome to language barriers i.e. primary documents are being
published by the developed countries like USA, UK, France, Japan etc.
and among them the non-English speaking countries produce majority of
scientific literatures in their mother languages.

8. FUNCTIONS OF A LIBRARY CONSORTIUM

Every library differs from one another according to its collection, information needs of users, working method, sources of finance, processing of information, etc. The various steps of jobs/functions can be adopted by a consortium for functioning standing on a common platform, which are:
(a) Agreement for establishment of a consortium:
A concrete agreement needed to be established for the participating libraries in consortia to achieve a common goal. The member library follows the common mission of a consortium as a whole. However, every library will be able to work in such a manner that they are mutually exclusive
(b) Administration of library consortium:
A statutory body is very much essential to run the total functions of a consortium smoothly. This has to be formed taking Chief Librarian / Chief Information Manager from every library / Information Centre and one of them will act as a Chief Coordinator on rotation basis. Each library will inform about their collection, databases, user service, training of human resource for handling new equipment, etc. to the Chief Coordinator through hierarchical management level.
(c) Financial Control:
Libraries form a consortium for providing better service to the users due to financial crisis. The crucial activities of the members of management committee are to take action on the following financial points like:
· Whether a consortium fund be created to subscribe the core journals in different subjects in multiple copies at a discount rate;
· How to manage the fund of a consortium and how much money is to be collected from each library as a contribution
· Whether the participating libraries to whom the responsibility to negotiate with some publishes are vested by the managing committee, will send remittance to the publishers for multiple copies from its own fund and adjust fund subsequently among the participating libraries;
· What method of accounting standard is to be maintained to avoid any pilferage?

(d) Joint work
As per guideline of a consortium, every individual library will prepare a list of titles for resource sharing among participating libraries looking into the user demand. They may also initiate to contact with different publishers for negotiation. All the participating libraries under library consortia have to work jointly just like a joint venture in a business to make the consortia a total success. Each library will subscribe the core journals and prepare the union list of titles to be covered under resource sharing program and the member libraries may also send full content page service of all issues of the title to another library.

9. MERITS OF LIBRARY CONSORTIA


Every activity poses some merits and demerits. Here are a few merits related to library consortium:
* It enables a comprehensive collection.
· It helps in avoidance of duplication of core collection
· It will reduce the cost of collection development among the member libraries of
the consortium.
· Users' demand is considered for collection development.
· It ensures easy access to resource sharing on Internet by creating databases among
the libraries

10. DEMERITS OF LIBRARY CONSORTIA

· The coordinating unit of consortia may charge excessive contribution fees
· There are chances of manipulation of funds
· Lack of competition may lead to bureaucracy in a consortium.

11. CONCLUSION


The major responsibilities of libraries include collection development, preservation, and retrieval of information for providing better user services. With the introduction of computer and communication technologies in libraries, these responsibilities have become more complex. In a developing country like India, different steps are being taken to disseminate information more or less in all subject areas, especially in science and technology. The objectives of any library consortium will be achieved if there is a willingness to join together and to believe that more could be achieved through the efforts of the whole rather than at the individual level. "The success and survival of libraries will much depend on how much and to what extent the libraries cooperate with each other in future"- Allen Kent. Thus, cooperation is an essential facet of modern library management in most developed countries of the world, but in India it is still in a formative stage. The resource sharing networking has emerged as important alternatives due to tremendous explosion of information, financial constraints, information in different forms etc.,. In conclusion of the above discussion, for better consortium, integrating intellectual access are all the distinct steps moving towards the 21st century libraries. Indian librarians should seriously rethink and reinitiate consortium movement like western countries for maximum utilization of resources at a reduced cost, time and space.


REFERENCES

1. JAYPRAKASH (A) and KOTESHWAR RAO (M). Consortia based resource sharing among libraries and information centers in digital era. National Conference on Information Management in Digital Libraries, Kharagpur, 2006. Proceedings.

2. MURTHY (T A V). Resource sharing and consortia for India. Information management in e-libraries. National Conference on Information Management in E-libraries, Kharagpur, 2002. Proceedings. p. 14-15.
3. NARASIMHAN (G N). Resource sharing focus on history ILL and document delivery, cooperative collection development – assumptions, problems, solutions. National Conference on Information Management in E-libraries, Kharagpur, 2002. Proceedings. p. 556-564.

4. The Concise Oxford dictionary of current English. 1966. Oxford, Clarendon Press. p.260