25 Research Library Networks, Consortia and Resource Sharing

Dr Anil Dhiman

Resource Sharing

Libraries are the service place, where they attempt to use all its resources to achieve its stated objectives, and to provide the best possible services, but this is not possible because of financial crunch facing by them. Not only in India, but also worldwide, libraries are striving hard to provide necessary and relevant information to their users because of limited resources. Hence, they tried to develop agreements for the sharing of materials, information and even human resources.

Kaula (1986) mentions – resource sharing is not a new concept in the field of libraries. The concept that goes by the term ‘library co-operation’ has been in use all along among those who had been working in libraries or had anything to do with the development of libraries. The term, however, has been replaced by a new coinage ––‘Resource Sharing’–– which sounds more attractive and makes better sense in this age of inflation and budgetary reduction. ‘Library Resources’ is the term that applies to personnel, material, functions or activities available in a library for satisfying the human needs and demands to acquire their desired knowledge (Anonymous, 2005).

Thus, resource sharing is basically the sharing of various resources among participating libraries on the cooperation basis. Inter-library loan is one of the oldest form of resource sharing in which exchange of documents was done among two or more than two libraries on mutual basis. Centralized cataloguing and union catalogues are the other forms of resource sharing that were prevalent in many of the libraries.

Laxman Rao (2006) has broadly grouped resource-sharing activities [forms] in Indian context into following four categories:

Inter-library Cooperation
Document Delivery Service (DDS)
National Information System in Science and Technology (NISSAT) and National Information Centers (NIC)
Library Consortia

Inter-library Cooperation is the local cooperation between two or more libraries, which may be formal or informal. Local cooperation has been necessitated due to alarming shortages of financial resources in many institutions. Smaller research and academic organizations are unable to procure information resources to satisfy their users’ needs; in turn, the lack of access to such information has a negative effect on research. A number of industries, colleges and similar research organization can be seen which can not afford to buy a single database because government support to them is limited. Here, coordination can be done on various basis among two or more than two libraries. Best example of this was the NISSAT, which has issued library tickets to many institutions and organizations allowing them access to the library facilities of government or government-sponsored institutions at a nominal charge.

National Information System in Science and Technology or more commonly known as NISSAT, is developed by National Committee on Science and Technology of India (NCST) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), with support from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for information support facilities for customers engaged in research and academics, promotion of existing information systems and services, introduction of modern information handling tools and techniques, and promotion of cooperation in information access. NISSAT main goal was to establish a bridge between information resource developers and information users in diverse subjects. NISSAT is non-functional now.

National Information Center or NIC with its Sectoral Information Centers (SICs) provides bibliographic, factual, and numeric information as a product to the scientists in the country. Each SIC is supposed to develop information and information sources in a particular or assigned discipline, including micro-disciplines. Preparation of subject bibliographies and union catalogues; Information retrieval on request; Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services; Building information on patents, specifications, and standards; Carrying out surveys, preparation of state of art reports, and scientific and technological forecasting; and Provision of translation, reprographic services, etc. are its functions.

Document delivery is a kind of inter-library loan service, which facilitates delivery of copies of journal articles and book chapters owned at any of the library. It helps to bridge the gap between the have and the have-not libraries. Document delivery is being widely used to facilitate user access to required materials. The primary objective of this service is to economically supplement library stock holdings by accessing material held at other libraries in a timely, efficient and cost effective manner, thus extending the amount of resources available to members of the libraries. But in any case, the copyright should not be violated.

INFLIBNET is the best example of document delivery. It has introduced this service in collaboration with the six universities which act as Document Delivery Centers. These universities are the University of Hyderabad, Banaras Hindu University, Punjab University, the Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Each of these libraries is supposed to take care of a specified region for document delivery service, but it is not mandatory that it only serve that region. Users are free to use resources from any library. However, these libraries are independent and deal directly with the users. In addition to these six libraries, the INFLIBNET center itself also provides document delivery services to the academic community.

Library Consortia are the agreements of various libraries for subscribing e-resources at economic rates. These will be discussed later in details in this chapter.

Library Networks

Human networking has been in operation since the ages when man understood the limitations of survival as an independent entity. The compulsions of interdependence have given birth to the norms for cooperation in different scenarios. So have they done in the case of libraries which had to fulfill the growing demands of their users and to satisfy the legitimate use of their resources. Further, the introduction of computer networking as an accepted part of the library and information infrastructure has paved the way for automated networking. Networking has a very significant impact on the way in which library and information systems are perceived.

A library network is broadly described as a group of libraries coming together with some agreement of understanding to help each other with a view to satisfying the information needs of their clienteles. National Commission on Libraries & Information Science in its National Programme Document (cited in Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) defines a network as two or more libraries engaged in a common pattern of information exchange, through communications for some functional purpose.

Meitei and Devi (2006) state that “a library network is broadly describe as a group of libraries coming together with some agreement of understanding to help each other with a view to satisfying the information needs of their users”.

Thus, a library network is the grouping of various libraries with in a particular region or the field, where the basic purpose is to promote resource sharing among member libraries by coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible. Human Resource Development is also one of the basic purposes in the library network.

2.1. Need for Library Networks

Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) have listed following some factors which are responsible for the development of library and information networks in India:

The report of the working group of the planning commission on modernization of library services and informatics for the seventh five year plan – 1985-90.
The National Policy on Library & Information Systems Document (1986) accepted by the ministry of HRD, Government of India.
The report on National Policy on University Libraries prepared by the Association of Indian Universities (1987).
The UGC report on Information Systems for Science and Technology under the Department of Science & Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India that has been vigorously promoting an integrated approach to library automation and networking.

Networking has integrated all the library activities e-mail, support reference service through search of databases, exploiting the catalogue of other institutions, participation in inter-library loan (ILL), ordering of books and journals, services by establishing home page, etc. There are various benefits of forming library networks. Important ones based on Vagiswari and Louis (1998) and Jebaraj and Devadoss (2005) are given below:

Create better resource sharing to reduce costs.
Speedy delivery of documents
Keep abreast of new developments
Give access to advice from colleagues with similar problems
Create databases for projects, specialists and institutions to provide online information services
Improve the efficiency of housekeeping operations.
Coordinate with other regional, national and international network for exchange of information and documents; and
Generate new services and also improve the efficiency of existing ones.

2.2. Development of Library Networks

Library networks seem to be developed first in foreign countries. OCLC is supposed to be the first example of library network that was founded in 1967, which has introduced online shared cataloguing system for libraries in 1971. Interlibrary Loan service was introduced in 1979 and since then has been used for more than 114 million loans among 6,700 libraries around the world. First Search service was introduced as a reference tool in 1991 and is now used by more than 19,246 libraries.

RLG-RLIN was formed by Research Library Group (USA) in the year 1974 for cooperative collection development, preservation, conservation, inter-library loan of the documents. RLG Union Catalogue Database has also been prepared by this network.

Washington Library Network (WLN) is another network of USA that was established in the year 1972. More than 800 institutes are participating and sharing their resources through this network.

Joint Academic Network (JANET) is the network of United Kingdom that was sponsored by Higher and Further Education Funding Council.

EURONET was established by European Economic Community (EEC), Luxembourg in the year 1979. It has generated Special Database of Significance to EEC’s thrust areas of research.

As far as India is concerned, the movement for establishing city and regional-based library networks by NISSAT (National Information System for Science and Technology), a body under Dept of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India was started during 1980s and 1990s to expedite the resource sharing among S&T libraries in order to avoid duplication of acquisition and minimization of cost. NISSAT has provided financial assistance for setting up of these library networks. Consequently, the libraries from both Maharashtra and Gujarat began to focus on cooperative efforts by forming networks in the region, viz. ADINET (Ahmedabad Library Network), PUNENET (Pune Library Network) and BONET (Bombay Library Network). All three being city Library Networks initiated the development of union catalogue of resources available in the member libraries (Ghosh and Jambhekar, 2003).

This movement led to the mushrooming of various city library networks in India, like-CALIBNET (Calcutta Library Network), DELNET (Delhi Library Network which later became Developing Library Network in 2000) etc. (Kaul, 2009). Now, we have many general and specialized library networks throughout the country.

2.3. Important Library Networks of India

Library networks can be divided into two categories – general network and specialized network. The latter can further be divided into metropolitan network and countrywide networks.

(A) General Networks in India

These networks are not restricted to library services, rather they are meant for the use of a vast community including library services. Some important general networks are narrated in below given paragraphs.

(1). ENVIS (www.envis.nic.in)

ENVIS or Environmental Information System is established by Ministry of Forest and Environment in the year 2002 which became fully operational by 2006. ENVIS is a distributed environmental information network with the mandate of collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to varying users comprises of decision-makers, researchers, academicians, policy planners, research scientists, etc. The focal point of ENVIS and its network partners laid emphasis on the development of information base by creating comprehensive databases and strengthening information resource repository in the concerned subject areas.

The main objectives of ENVIS include:

to build a repository and dissemination centre in Environmental Science and Engineering;
to gear up the modern technologies of acquisitions, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination of environmental information.
to support and promote research, development and innovation in environment information technology.

ENVIS has developed a computerized database listing more than 5000 papers. ENVIS has also designated as a National Focal Point (NFP) and a Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP for the South Asia sub-region, a global environmental information network which stimulates and supports exchange of information within and between the nations.

(2). ERNET (www.eis.ernet.in):

ERNET is a computer network for academic and research community that was established by ERNET, India which is an autonomous scientific society of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Govt. of India), in the year 1986. ERNET was started with the financial assistance from UNDP (UNESCO) as Dial-up network. It is largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network with point of presence located at the premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of the country.

ERNET has been serving institutions in various sectors, namely- health, agriculture, higher education, schools and science & technology and thus, understands the needs of these knowledge institutions. ERNET India is now well placed to address the complete ICT requirements of these sectors through large turn-key project solutions and consultancy services. All IITs, IISc Bangalore, DOE, Delhi and NCST, Mumbai were connected by 9.6 kbit/s leased line by 1992. It has also been instrumental in giving connectivity to UGC purviewed universities under UGC-INFONET programme.

Its services include communication services such as e-mail, file transfer, remote log on, database access, bulletin board etc. Besides, ERNET has also organized a number of training programmes catering to specific requirements of its user communities from various domains belonging UGC, ICAR, Defence, KVKs, etc.

(3). INDONET (www.indonetglobal.com)

INDONET is the first commercial computer network that was established by CMC Limited, Hyderabad in 1986. CMC Ltd is renamed in 1989 as Informatics India Ltd and it is looking its operation. INDONET was set up fulfill the following objectives:

To create the infrastructure for a network and promote a “network culture” within the country;
to create a “software library” so that specialized users could afford to use software;
to provide a platform for developing software and
to develop in-house expertise in networking and disseminate information to the computing professional arena through training programmes, seminars etc.

The main customer of INDONET is the parent organization CMC itself. The two most important activities carried out by CMC on the network are the maintenance of a Management Information System (MIS) available for each of the departments – marketing, finance and personnel; and OLIMPICS – the spare part inventory management system developed in-house for maintaining an accurate inventory of all spare parts necessary for any maintenance or repair job anywhere in India (Rau and Rao, 1993).

This commercial computer network provides database services such as DIALOG, COMPUSERVE; IP; SHARP to its members.

(4). NICNET (www.nic.ac.in)

National Information Center Network (NICNET) is a Planning Commission, Govt. of India sponsored nationwide computer and communication network of NIC, which utilizes state-of the art network technologies to provide connectivity to Central Government Ministries/Departments and all 35 States and 616 Districts of India.

The primary objective of the network is to provide computing and communication infrastructure, to aid planning and monitoring of schemes and decision-making activities in the government. Its services include – bulk file transfer; teleconferencing; full text and bibliographic retrieval services. NICNET utilizes variety of technologies including terrestrial, wireless and VSAT networking to provide connectivity across the country and is now extending to the grassroots level (Anonymous, 2011).

It also acts as a centre for ICMRNIC and MEDLARS in India; and facilitates the access of Chemical Abstracts Database.

(5). SIRNET (www.sirnet.org)

Scientific and Industrial Research Network was commenced in 1989 by the Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), a constituent establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of India.

40 labs and R&D Institutions of CSIR are its members. Scientific communication; leather technology; natural products; food technology; medicinal plants are its fields which it cover. SIRNET is connected to ERNET which, in turns, is linked with the international network UUNET. It also provides access to other international networks like BITNET, CSNET and JANET.

(6). VIDYANET

VIDYANET is a dedicated communication/computer network to meet out the needs of scientists and research workers in the laboratories/institutions of excellence in the country. It is sponsored by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. VIDYANET objectives are to provide rapid means of communication by linking computers at various institutions in India to similar networks outside the country; to stimulate corporate research, the day-to-day exchange of research information and the execution of joint projects and publications.

All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Indian Institute of Technology (NT), Indian Statistical Institute, and National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi and Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism NT, National Centre for Software Technology, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay are its potential users. Sharing of computer resources and access to remote applications, databases, libraries, etc. are its major activities (Lahiri and Singh 1999).

(7). VIKRAM

VIKRAM is the packed-switched public data network was developed by the Department of Telecommunications to cover nine cities of the country. Initially, the network was consisted of 8 switching nodes and 12 remote access points with its Network Management Centre at Delhi, while nodes in the four metros, namely- Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras were extended later.

VIKRAM services include-information exchange through e-mail/FTP and Bibliographic Databases.

(B) Specialized Networks

Special library networks are developed giving emphasis on library services and are the meant, especially for library community. Firstly, have a look on metropolitan networks.

(1). ADINET (http://www.alibnet.org/)

Ahmedabad Library Network or ADINET was established in the year 1994 with the support from NISSAT, DSIR and INFLIBNET, but formally, it was inaugurated in February 1995 (Thakore, 1996) to bring about cooperative mode of working amongst more than 150 libraries and information centers in and around Ahmedabad. Its major aims were to bring cooperation among its regional libraries; to develop databases; to integrate scientific and technical information systems. It also plans to coordinate efforts for suitable collection development and reduce unnecessary duplication wherever possible.

A centralized database of periodicals and databases available in member libraries of Ahmedabad has also been prepared to generate Union Catalogue of Ahmedabad Libraries by this network.

Gujarat institute of Development Research; Gujarat University; Gujarat Vidyapeeth Entrepreneurship Development; Institute of India; Gujarat Cancer Research Institute; Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research Centre and Sardar Patel lnstitute of Public Administration are some of its beneficiary libraries.

(2). BALNET (http://library.bub.ernet.in/sub/balnet.html)

Bangalore Library Network was established in the year 1995. It is sponsored by JRD Tata Memorial Library. Presently, it has more than 100 Libraries as its member.

(3). BONET

Bombay Library Network (BONET) was established in the year 1994 with the help of NISSAT & NCST to promote cooperation among libraries in Bombay. The aim of BONET is to build a low cost library information system which can possibly be used as a model for future expansion of this service even outside Bombay.

BONET has created a bibliographic database on computers and software technology, union catalogue of journals and other periodicals of the libraries in the region. It is providing online catalogue; online document delivery; information retrieval; inter-library loan; and dissemination of information service to its member libraries. It also offers training related to library computerization and networking, and speed up computerization of Bombay libraries.

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre; Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.; lndira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Marathwada Institute of Technology; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and Reserve Bank of India were some of its beneficiary libraries (Ramani, 1996). But this network is non-functional now.

(4). CALIBNET (www.calibnet.org/)

Calcutta Libraries Network (CALIBNET) was envisaged as a metropolitan network linking some 38 libraries in Calcutta metropolitan area. It is a Government of India Project that was launched by the National Information Systems for Science and Technology (NISSAT), Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR). It is managed by CALIBNET Society which is established under the West Bengal Government’s Societies Registration Act 1961.

It aims to provide the individual libraries and their reading members with cost-effective solutions to their information problems. The project is building access to library & information resources available in the eastern region.

CALIBNET is helping in cataloguing; serials control; acquisitions; circulation to member institutions. Its major services include – CAS; SDI; union catalogue; partial database; editing and retrieval of records; global information; search; full-text document delivery; library automation; and CALIBNET INFO Services. It also provides– On-Demand Information Services; Consultative Service for Library Automation; Manpower Development Opportunities; and Research & Development in IT Applications.

(5). MALIBNET (www.mulibnet.org)

Madras Library Network (MALIBNET) was initially developed by INSDOC and NISSAT in 1993 to connect six major academic institutions. Now, it has many local libraries as its members.

MALIBNET has developed two important databases – one is a Directory Database of Current Serials in Madras covering 30 libraries, and the other is a Contents Database covering articles published in 300 journals available in Madras libraries. They are available for online access to any user but the information is also supplied in CD and hard copy.

(6). MYLIBNET (www.mylibnet.org)

Mysore Library Network is also a NISSAT sponsored library network that was established during the year 1994. Its prime objectives are to develop software tools; conducting seminar; workshops/training programs; and conducting surveys for libraries.

Mysore city is unique as compared to any other metropolitan city due to the richness in information resources. It is also unique in a way where one can find information on many areas like food science, sericulture, speech & hearing, pharmacy, dentistry, polymer, medicine, archeology, anthropology, Indian languages and engineering at one place (Krishna Rao, 2002). Therefore, Mylibnet network was developed to cater the needs of vast community of different libraries in the city.

Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore, being an active member of Mysore City Library Consortium (MCLC), is hosting this network in its premises CFTRI, Mysore and 116 Institutions are its members.

MYLIBNET has also compiled a catalogue MYLIB Database in the year 1996 in the machine-readable form and developed a software package for searching this catalogue either by institution name, journal title or by keywords. Now MYLIBNET is bringing reality to its networking activity by providing Web-enabled facility to its member libraries to modify the union catalogue database online. Besides, e-journals; food patents; CFTRI Library Bulletin; public services are its some of the important services being provided to member libraries.

MYLIBNET has organized many workshops on multimedia applications in Library and Exhibition of Multimedia Products; and seminar on Bar Code Applications in Library and Demonstration of Bar Code Products; on Internet Concept and Techniques and Live Demonstration of Internet Access over STD Line and training programme on Common Communication Format for the Creation of Databases etc.

(7). PUNENET

Pune Library Network was developed as a joint programme of the University of Pune, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) in the year 1992. It was funded by National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT).

Union catalogue of current periodicals in Pune libraries and information Centers; Catalogues of holding of all member libraries; Publishers and book sellers database; Database on international grants and fellowships in the health sciences; Hard databanks in biotechnology; Union catalogue of books available in British libraries in India are available through PUNENET for its members (Uchale, 2013).

Besides, it was providing access to NICNET and databases available on NICNET e.g., MEDLARS, AIDS database, US patent database; and access to internet and the databases available on internet and Patent information. But this network is non-functional now.

(B) Countrywide Area Network:

These are the networks which have their reach beyond metropolitan cities. Hence, they may be called national networks. Now, have the details on some nationwide/countrywide networks of the country.

(1). BTISNET (www.btisnet.nic.in/)

BTISNET is a specialized information network that was sponsored by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and established in 1986-87. It has been set up for 10 specialized information centres in genetic engineering-cell culture and virology, plant tissue culture, photosynthesis and plant molecular biology, oncogenes reproduction physiology, cell transformation, nucleic acid and protein sequences, immunology and bio-process engineering.

The important services of BTISNET include – data processing using application software; online communication access; and facsimile facility.

(2). DELNET (www.delnet.nic.in/)

DELNET was started under the name Delhi Library Network at the India International Centre Library in January 1988 initially with the supports of National Information System for Science and Technology (NISSAT) and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India. Subsequently, it was supported by the National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Kaul (2009) states that this network whose journey started as a city based library network in 1988, emerged as a major operational library network not only in India but in South Asia, connecting more than 1597 libraries in 30 States and UTs in India and seven other countries. Now, it is known by the name Developing Library Network.

The main objective of DELNET is to promote sharing of resources among the libraries located in Delhi and beyond. This is done by developing a network of libraries, by storing and disseminating information, offering computerized information services to users and by coordinating efforts for suitable collection development and reducing unnecessary duplication wherever possible. Other objectives were as follow:

to promote sharing of resources among the libraries in Delhi by developing a network of libraries and collecting, storing and disseminating information through computerized services;
to undertake scientific research in the area of information science and technology;
to offer technical guidance to the member libraries;
to facilitate establishment of referral and/or research centers and maintain a central on-line catalogue of books, serials and non-book materials of all the participating libraries;
to develop specialized bibliographic databases of books, serials and non-book materials;
to develop databases of projects, specialists and institutions; and
to co-ordinate with other regional, national and international networks and libraries for exchange of information and documents through e-mail etc.

DELNET gives membership to various libraries including universities, colleges, government departments and provides technical assistance to them for creating and maintaining the bibliographic databases, serials control, union catalogue preparation, abstracting services, inter-library loan, document transfer/ copying facilities and for accessing local, national and international databases..

It is actively publishing various Union Catalogues of the resources available in member-libraries. Union Catalogue of Books, Union List of Current Periodicals, Union Catalogue of Periodicals, CD-ROM Database, Database of Indian Specialists, Database of Periodical Articles, Union List of Video Recordings, Urdu Manuscripts’ Database, Database of Theses and Dissertations, sample databases of language publications using GIST technology and several other databases have already been developed by the DELNET. The data are being updated in these databases and they are growing rapidly. DELNET has also launched two software, namely- DELSIS and DEL-PLUS for library automation purposes at a greatly reduced rates.

Figure : Growth of DELNET Membership

DELNET popularity can be seen through its membership growth chart (after Kaul, 2009), which itself tells the story of its popularity where the growth from 26 members in 1992-93 has gone upto 1597 in 2009-10.

Nowadays, it is looking to help the libraries in tapping the tacit knowledge available in their institutions and to contribute for the development of the Knowledge Repositories and networking the knowledge resources. It also want to open shortly the State Centres in different parts of India and also the Regional Centres in order to provide training to the library professionals, promote the usage of network resources and also to help the local libraries in the development of the digital contents.

(3). DESINET (http://www.drdo.desinet)

Defence Science Information Network (DESINET) is a bibliographic information network for Defence that has been sponsored by DESIDOC, Delhi (Lahiri and Singh, 1989). 51 Laboratories are member of this network.DESINET is covering only unclassified and technical information. It has close links close links with other similar networks like NICNET for exchange of information on mutually agreed terms. Its major activities focus on scientific, research and defence communities.

(4). INFLIBNET (www.inflibnet.ac.in)

Information Library Network is an autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi that was established in the year 1988 at Ahemdabad, but starts its functioning in 1991. INFLIBNET Centre has become an independent and autonomous Inter-University Centre (IUC) of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in May 1996 with the target to network all the Academic Libraries of Higher Education in India for promotion of scholarly communication among academicians and researchers. Now, it has been shifted in its new own campus at Gandhi Nagar – the capital of Gujarat.

INFLIBNET is a computer communication network of universities and R&D libraries and bibliographic information centers throughout the country. UGC purviewed Universities and the colleges along with R&D libraries are its members.

Karn and Das (2009) have listed its various missions and vision as follows:

Leveraging on the latest technology to create a virtual network of people and resources in academic institutions with an aim to provide effective and efficient access to knowledge through perseverance, innovation and collaboration.
Providing seamless, reliable and ubiquitous access to scholarly, peer-reviewed electronic resources to the academic community in all educational institution with a focus on services and tools, processes and practices that support its effective use and increase value of this information.
Building and strengthening ICT infrastructure in educational institutions with value added services.
Developing tools, techniques and procedures for secure and convenient access management enabling users to access information in electronic format from anywhere, anytime.
Developing resource selection guides and online tutorials for effective delivery and usage of e-resources.
Facilitating creation of open access digital repositories in every educational institution for hosting educational and research contents created by these institutions.

SOUL software is also developed by INFLIBNET. It also trains human resources in the field of information technology by organizing short term courses at many times at Ahemdabad and other places. UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium that provides access of e-resources including full-text journals, and bibliographic databases is also being executed by INFLIBNET. Annually it also organizes meets where library professionals, information scientists from different universities and institutes participate and discuss the hot topics. Besides, Shodhganga – a reservoir of Indian University Thesis is also being developed by this centre.

Its new initiatives include: Open Source Software R&D, Access Management R&D, Open Access R&D, Web2.0 and Lib2.0 etc.

(5). MANLIBNET (www.manlibnet.in)

Management Libraries Network or MANLIBNET was established in the year 2000 which is in operation through a registered Society in Delhi under Societies Regulation Act of 1860. The fundamental objective of the network is to provide a forum for all the management libraries to share information and ideas for development of libraries and business librarianship.

MANLIBNET also organizes its annual meets at various places to discuss new and latest developments in the field. A quarterly newsletter is also published by the MANLIBNET for member institutions.

(6). RENNIC (www.ren.nic.in)

Research & Education Network of National Informatics Centre is sponsored by NIC, New Delhi. It was established to promote creation and usage of online databases and to provide online access to various international databases. It also facilitates to setup country wide computer network for the academic and research community sponsoring more than one million potential users through 8000 institution members.

RENNIC provides global computer communication facilities to academic, research and medical institutions through NICNET. It also facilitates openness among academicians and researchers throughout the country. Its memberships is open to academic, research, medical institutions which are recognized and funded by UGC, CSIR, MHRD, MHFW, ICMR, AICTE, ICSSR, ICAR, DBT and central & state governments.

Library Consortia

Library networking paved the way for development of library consortia, but the motive behind library consortia remain the same that is “cooperative arrangement among group or institutions”.

Oxford English Dictionary defines a consortium as “temporary cooperation of a number of powers, companies, etc. for a common purpose. It is an association of similar type of organizations/institutions who are engaged for producing and servicing the common things for providing services for a specific purpose of its users”.

American Heritage Dictionary (3rd ed., 1993) considered the term – “a cooperative arrangement among groups or institutions”. More straightforward description of ‘library consortia’ would be organizations of libraries formed to realize the benefits and opportunities of collaborative activity.It is a generic term to indicate any group of libraries that are working together towards a common goal, whether to expand cooperation on traditional library services (such as collection development) or electronic information services… It is now used perhaps too broadly, and encompasses everything from formal legal entities to information groups that come together solely to achieve better pricing for purchasing electronic information (Hirshon, 1999).

Thus, a library consortium is a concept that facilitates the libraries to get the benefits of wider access to electronic resources at affordable cost and at the best terms of licenses. Library consortia may vary from being decentralized to highly centralized in nature. The degree of centralization of consortium is the primary factor affecting not only how member institutions interact with one another, but also maintain the relationship with external party (publisher/vendor). More decentralized the consortium, the greater the degree of autonomy each member retains.

3.1. Salient features of Library Consortia

The salient features of library consortia may be narrated as under.

They eliminate the different problems faced by the libraries to provide various services to their users. They also meet the thrust of information of the vast people due to rapid growth of population all over the world.
They 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.
They collect all the documents published at the national and international level to overcome of the problem of library financial crunch.
Publishers also find it convenient to negotiate with members through an agent and agent raising individual invoices to all members and single payment to publishers.

3.2. Benefits of Library Consortia

There are numerous benefits of library electronic resources in minimum subscription. below:

consortia, the most important being the access of Other benefits (Panchakshari, n.d.) can be as stated

They provide each institution the ability to share resources without sacrificing the individuality of each member library.
The collections of the consortium libraries enable each member library to support scholarly research for its users.
Cooperative research and development in application of information technology enhances the service and realizes cost efficiencies.
Staff development and interaction enhance the quality of services.
Reduction in cost is achieved, where the consortium acts as an agent for all member libraries and negotiates a purchase price that is lower than that available to individual institution. Hence, end users reap the benefits of more resources than would be available through one library.
Enhance library services that are provided with an emphasis on access to new electronic resources including databases and services offered through the Internet and World Wide Web.
Expedite inter-library borrowings at lower cost.

Bansode (2007) adds the following benefits to library consortia:

Library consortia enrich the educational, intellectual, informational and social aspirations of users through the co-operative provision of superior quality library resources and services made available to the users. Many electronic products, normally out of reach for a single institution, are made available to them.
Formation of library consortia allows gaining competitive advantage by pooling resources, mutual interests and complementary skills which develop as a result of consortia, bring with them better solutions and help in bridging the gap between information and resource deficient libraries.
Consortia link libraries into an effective network of cooperative entities that benefit the users. Every library is liable to send their respective holdings to other libraries under a resource sharing program.
Enable libraries to procure more resources with less finance and ultimately help them to create library beyond four walls.

But we should not forget that consortia are ambitious network of both electronic and non-electronic resources and services. However, mainly they are formed for electronic resource sharing. Though there are some limitations too, like occasional hike in contribution fee; potential conflict because of bureaucracy culture; level of technology, staff size; budgetary constraints and illegal and unethical use of user authentication etc., but they are not of so much worry in comparison to benefits of consortia and can be tackled easily.

3.3. Aims and Functions of Library Consortia

The aim of consortia is to achieve what the members of the group cannot achieve individually, and its purpose is sharing of resources, money, and the manpower. Sharing physical resources including books and periodicals amongst members is the main goal. However, the mode of cooperation has gone under transformation with infusion of new information technology from print-based environment to digital environment. The emergence of internet, particularly the World Wide Web (WWW) as a new media [sic] of information delivery triggered proliferation of web-based full-text online resources (Arora and Agarwal, 2004). Hence, we have consortia mainly for subscribing e-resources at affordable cost.

The main functions of library consortium are – collection sharing, electronic content licensing; electronic content loading/presentation; inter-library loan/ document delivery; preservation; training;union lists/shared online catalogue (Dhiman and Rani, 2007); and other such as new forms of scholarly and scientific communication..

3.4. Growth and Development of Library Consortia

Library consortia do not have any remarkable history, however, the consortial arrangements basically started in 1930s to cooperate in administering ‘interlibrary loans’ as well as ‘resource sharing’. It is worth noting that the office of Education (US) initiated a nationwide study on the growth of the library consortia, conducted by the System Development Corporation (SDC), aiming in view of providing guidance for libraries that are forming or planning to form the consortia. This study identified 125 library consortia — largely focused on academic libraries, founded during a period from 1931 to 1972. Same study reveals that a significant number of 115— comprising of 92 percent of library consortia had been founded after 1960, a few comprising of 5 in number were established between 1951-61, whereas another 5 consortia had their beginnings before 1950.

Patrick (1972) also noted a similar observation in her introduction to Guidelines for Library Co-operation. But it would be interesting that, despite the continued growth in number of consortia in 1980s, some other factors like development of ‘mega-consortia’ (bibliographic utilities) and integrated library systems (library automation) enhanced the involvement of libraries into consortial activities.

Allen and Hirshon (1998) indicate – “perhaps the most important development for libraries during the current decade has been the move from organizational self-sufficiency to a collaborative survival mode as personified by the growth of library consortia. They emphasized that, IT is now enabling a level of cooperation that is much broader and deeper than ever before”.

As such, new types of library consortia began to flourish during 1990s which exploited the advances in Information Technology.

3.4.1. International Scene

Currently, according an estimate, roughly 215 consortia are operating in U.S alone ranging from large/comprehensive to regional and small consortia. And 50 consortia are operational in European area.National & State Libraries Australasia (NSLA) E-Resources Consortium is operational in Australia.China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) consortium is operational in China.Arizona University Libraries Consortium (AULC) is a voluntary alliance of six university libraries which are situated in close proximity of Arizona. E-content licensing, inter-library loan and document delivery are its important functions along with collective purchase of electronic resources for member libraries.

Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC) was formed in 1987 as a regional resource sharing organization by 7 universities in Washington DC. It is providing e-resources to students and faculty members of participating universities.

Cape Library Cooperative (CALICO) is the consortium of South Africa which was formed in Cape region in the year 1992. It is promoting information literacy and economic development in the region by providing information to its users in a form they want. Other consortia of South Africa include – ESAL (Eastern Seaboard Association of Libraries), FRELICO (FREe State Libraries and Information Consortium, GAELIC (Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium, SEALS (South Eastern Academic Libraries’ System) and South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLIC).

Consortium of Academic Libraries at Manchester (CALIM) was formed in 1992 by an alliance of five university libraries in the Manchester region of UK. Its main aim is to reduce duplication efforts through a common technical platform, collaboration in the delivery of information and standardization of user services.New England Law Library Consortium (NELLCO) is the other consortium of UK that was formed by 15 New England Law Libraries in 1983 to enhance research and educational opportunities at law libraries through cooperative collection development and resource sharing. Its primary function is resource sharing, inter-library loan, training of professionals and preparation of union/shared online catalogue for member libraries. Besides, Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL), NESLI, SUPC, London Libraries Consortium, M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries and UK Academic Library Consortia are also there in UK.

3.4.2. Indian scene

Library cooperation activities in India too can be traced back to 1868 when Whitney Stokes compiled the ‘Catalogue of Manuscripts’ in various parts of India. This was followed by publication of part first of Sanskrit Manuscripts in private libraries of Northwest Province covering Banaras in 1890. During that period “A Catalogue of Sanskrit” was edited by F. Kelhorn. More and more cooperative activities came to light and in 1924, when Motibhai N Amin organized a cooperative venture called “Pustakalaya Sahayak Sahakari Mandal”, to supply books, periodicals and articles to libraries in Gujarat and also the funds and deposits from the libraries were collectively held in a trust.

Slowly libraries in India have come together to know each other’s existence, and have realized the importance and strength of co-existence, which in many ways facilitated the library services. Manpower sharing and training are other important aspects, brought to limelight by library cooperation. Organized communication in the form of conferences and workshops were established among groups of libraries. Further, the well-established Science and Technology Libraries in India act as mentors for the less equipped university and college libraries. As cost of periodicals escalates every year, it is not possible for any individual library to subscribe to many of the science journals. Therefore, the libraries felt – either resorts to cutting down on expensive titles or practice the broad hearted attitude of sharing those journals with neighbours through short-term loan or through duplicating the required articles for their users. This all needed co-operation and sharing of sources among libraries.

Later, library cooperation induced the librarians to work towards establishing well-connected library networks in their regions initially, without a formal commitment towards its organization and collective funding. Many library networks have successfully extended their services to their users, since inter-library loan concept is the foundation for all resource sharing activities. Further, the advent of technology has accelerated this process and the globalization of education and multi-directional research output constantly enforces to disappear the borders between different disciplines.

Further, the new paradigm for ‘seamless integration of disciplines’ posed the multidisciplinary research opportunities, results a great demand for scholarly communications. Changing patterns in publishing industries and phenomenal increase of web-based resources as well as other organizational imperatives, perhaps forced the Indian libraries to move towards a strategic partnership – as a measure of last resort. Therefore, a few consortia have been made in different levels to provide shared web-based electronic resources amongst the research, academic, and technical libraries in India during last decade of 20th century. Such major include- IITs-BARC-TIFR Cooperation, TIFR Libraries Consortium, ISI-Library Consortia Deals, SNDT Consortia of LISA, FORSA Libraries Consortia, ICAST Consortia, IIM Libraries Consortia, VIC Consortium of ICICI-Knowledge Park, and ISRO Libraries Consortia (Pal and Das, 2008).

It is worth to mention that some of the initiatives listed above could not materialize properly and beyond their success. Still there was a belief that the consortia initiatives will have bright future, and hoping to have more members to participate. Therefore, newer initiatives were continued. Consequently, two big consortia – Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST) Consortium in 2003 and UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium in 2004 respectively were launched for centrally-funded technical institutions (IITs, IISc, IIMs, IIITs, etc.) and universities. Both are setting a new culture of electronic access and browsing in academic institutions. Other library consortia like Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Consortium, CeRA (Consortium of e-Resources in Agriculture), Health Science Library and Information Network (HELINET) Consortium and are also existing well.

Important Library Consortia in India

Important library consortia (based on Louis and Vagiswari, 1999; Pal and Das, 2008; Moorthy, 2009; Prasada Rao and Laxminarsaiah, 2009; Ratnakar, Prerna and Satyanarayana, 2009; Siddamallaiah and Butdisuwan, 2009; Visakhi, 2009; Arora and Trivedi, 2010a & b; Sakshi, Neeraj and Singh, 2011; Dhiman and Rani, 2012) are briefly discussed below to give their clear picture.

(1). Agreement of Co-operation amongst IITs, BARC and TIFR

The idea for consortium of IITs in India was first mooted in 1995 in an annual meeting of IIT Librarians at IIT Bombay for subscribing the printed journals, in which the librarians of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) also participated. It did trigger a highly active resource-sharing programme amongst IITs, BARC and TIFR in India and a decision for consortia-based subscription of electronic journals was taken in subsequent annual meetings of the IIT Librarians and an “Agreement of Co-operation” was signed to realize the goal.

The consortia of libraries of IITs, BARC and TIFR tried working out consortia-based subscription to electronic journals through a number of publishers including Elsevier Science (Science-direct), John Wiley (Wiley interscience), Springer Verlag (Link Information Services), and Academic Press (Project Ideal) for the year 2000, but without much success. Still the initiatives are being taken for the subsequent years, obviously minimizing the negative aspects experienced in previous years.

(2). Consortium for E-Resources in Agriculture (http://lib.iasri.res.in/cera.htm)

CeRA- the Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture was established in the year 2008 for facilitating accessibility of select scientific journals related to agriculture and allied fields, to all researchers in the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) that comprises of 41 State Agricultural Universities, one Central University, and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which itself is consist of 49 ICAR’s Central Research Institutes including ICAR headquarter, five Deemed Universities, five National Bureaus, 12 Project Directorates, 30 National Research Centres, 77 All India Coordinated Research Projects and Networks, eight Trainers Training Centres, and 562 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).

CeRA is successfully working with at its headquarters at IARI, Delhi with the following objectives :

To develop the existing R & D information resource base of ICAR institutes/agricultural universities, etc., comparable to that existing in world leading institutions/organizations.
To create an e-access culture among scientists/ teachers in ICAR institutes/SAU.
To develop Science Citation Index (SCI) facility at IARI for evaluation of scientific publications.
To assess the impact of CeRA on the level of research publications measured through Science Citation Index.

Consortium initially entered into agreement for three years under centralized funding and subscription of NAIP by maintaining print subscription of individual libraries who are the members of consortium for the journals on Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Fisheries, Crop Science, Computer Science, Soil Science, Animal Science, etc. Springer Link bouquet of e-journals on different subjects since 1990 onwards and ScienceDirect & CSIRTO e-resources are being subscribed in the consortium.

Figure: CeRA Consortium(Source : http://cera.iari.res.in/)

Efforts are being made to bring the journals from John Wiley and Taylor and Francis & two journals of Nature. Besides, Web of Science and lndianjournals.com to increase the scope of information retrieval are also planned to be subscribed.

(3). Consortia for Medical Information

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Delhi, the apex body in India for the formulation of biomedical research which was founded in 1911, is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. It has undertaken various activities to help to address the challenges of digital technology to research scholars/scientists including initiation of two types of following consortia:

JCCC@ICMR that covers all ICMR subscribed journals and full text of over 200 free journals, and
ICMR e-consortia that provide full text of subscribed e-journals only.

Figure : JCCC@ICMR

(Source : http://icmr.jccc.in/)

J-Gate Custom Content (JCC) acts as a bibliographic database and provides single access point for searching the locally subscribed journals, both print and electronic. The major advantage of JCC is its ability to maximize the usage of the journals subscribed by the library. JCCC@ICMR is an extension of JCC that was started in 2004 to provide a common access point to its different libraries and information centres with the help of Informatics India, so that they can know what the other libraries of the Council are subscribing and at the same time also increases the usage of these sources among the Council’s libraries.

Presently, JCCC@ICMR is providing a single point access to around 1047 journals out of which 858 journals are subscribed by 25 ICMR’s network of library and information centres and 189 are open access biomedical journals. Scientists of ICMR can access the full text and the abstracts of all the journals available free on the platform with weekly updates.

ICMR e-consortium was started in 2007 for subscribing few e-journals in a consortium mode for all ICMR Institutes. All the scientists of ICMR and its institutes can access these journals. Back volumes of Lancet (1996), BMJ (1994), NEJM (1993), Nature (1997), and Science (1997) are available online in this consortium.

(4). CSIR Consortia

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India that has 40 scientific laboratories (now 39) involved in basic and applied research in various disciplines decided to setup e-journals consortium in 2001 due to constant decline of journals information base in CSIR labs. Consequently, CSIR consortium was formed in the year 2002 to provide the access to electronic journals through the use of state-of-the art technology.

Figure : NKRC Consortium

(Source : http://ejournal.niscair.res.in/)

It is providing access to globally available electronic journals to entire S&T staff of CSIR and its constituent units. NISCAIR (formed after merging NISCOM and INSDOC) on behalf of CSIR has entered into an agreement with M/S Elsevier Science to access its odd 1,500 e-journals and further intends to strengthen its information resource base by subscribing e-access of more and more journals published globally. CSIR consortium has also extended its access by creating appropriate agreements on consortium basis with the other providers of e-journals.

Autonomous institutions and professional bodies under Department of Science technology (DST) have also joined the consortium for accessing information resources in 2009. Hence, it is renamed as a National Knowledge Resource Consortium (NKRC). Presently, the consortium has agreements for 29 information products including journals, bibliographic databases, patents, standards and protocols; and is acting a single point entity that provides its users with access to a multitude of open access resources to CSIR and DST libraries.

(5). DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) Library Consortia (http://www.csr.res.in/)

UGC and DAE, both the parties entered into a MoU in July 1989 with a view to make available the facilities of the Department of Atomic Energy to the students and researchers of the university system and to involve them in the design and fabrication of systems and equipment for the setting up of new research facilities. Consequently, the University Grants Commission created an Inter-University Consortium, with its headquarters at Indore for the utilization of the facilities established by the Department of Atomic Energy, which has over the years taken several initiatives to foster the interaction between the University system and the DAE institutions.

DAE consortium came into being in 2001 for 36 institutions including BARC, TIFR and SAMEER. Later, a revised MoU was made on 10th December, 2003 to promote interaction amongst the scientists working in the research centres of the Department of Atomic Energy and the faculty from the universities and other institutions of higher learning, and to enable young students to work on programmes of national importance under the joint guidance of the faculty from universities and the scientists of DAE so as to nurture an organic linkage between the university system and research centres of DAE. DAE will continue to make the major research facilities accessible to the researchers from the universities and institutions of higher learning through the consortium. It will also make available the infrastructural and accessorial facilities such as laboratories, library, workshop etc. necessary to carry on the research work. UGC, through the Consortium, will continue to make suitable financial provision for the salary of the core scientific, technical and administrative staff, and fellowship to research students, the travel and stay of the visiting faculty, and other recurring and non-recurring expenditure on the functioning of the Consortium.

DAE is subscribing many journals but important ones include – Nature Materials (Last 4 years), Science Magazine and Synchrotron Radiation. Besides, it is subscribing American Physical Society; American Institute of Physics; Institute of Physics (for Last 10 years); American Chemical Society; ISID; JCCC; Royal Society of Chemistry; Springer Link; and Taylor & Francis journals through INFLIBNET.

(6). DRDO E-Journals Consortium

Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Delhi is the largest government-funded research and development organization in India with a chain of over 50 laboratories and establishments across the country. Each DRDO laboratory has an independent and well established library and information centre that is also backed up with strategic information support from Defence Scientific Information and Documentation Centre (DESIDOC), a constituent establishment of DRDO.

DRDO E-Journal Consortium came into being with effect from 01 January 2009 covering 448 titles from 7 publishers, namely ACM Digital Library (47 journals, magazines, transactions, etc), ACS

(36), AIAA (7), Elsevier Science Direct (195 titles), IEE+IEEE (157 titles plus conferences, standards), Jane’s (5), and Science (1).

However, due to the limitation of sites available for accessing titles of ACM (5), AIAA (10), Jane’s (30), Science (13), and Elsevier Science Direct (access to 195 titles, 8 sites and access to their own subscribed titles in 34 other labs), a content browsing service was felt necessary. Therefore, J-Gate Custom Content for Consortium (JCCC) Service was added to facilitate access to contents of all the journal titles subscribed by 20 major DRDO labs. This service helps in obtaining a legal copy, by post, of an article required by a user in a laboratory not subscribing the title but is available in another laboratory.

(7). FORSA

Forum for Resource Sharing in Astronomy & Astrophysics (FORSA) was established in the year 1982 for sharing the resources available in astronomy libraries in the country. Later in the year 2004, its membership was extended to other institutes and now Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA)-Bangalore, Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA)-Pune, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA)-Pune, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL)-Ahmedabad, Raman Research Institute (RRI)-Bangalore, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR)-Mumbai, UP State Observatory-Nainital, and Nizamiah Observatory-Hyderabad are its members. It was also decided that additional member institute’s libraries can also join FORSA provided that an Astronomy research group exists in the institute.

Figure : FORSA Consortium

(Source : uni-mysore.ac.in/Asc/2010%20TO%202011/…/RC-UOM-Goudar.ppt)

FORSA members concluded a consortium deal with Kluwer publishers for cross e-access to 23 Astronomy journals. Electronic access to “Nature” journal is also being made available through this consortium deal. Besides, the AIP journals and MNRAS (Blackwell) were also considered by the FORSA members from the year 2004.

FORSA also organizes Round Tables on Consortia Models in India, Workshops on Consortia and Conferences on FORSA etc. with an annual meets are regular basis.

(8). HELINET Consortium

Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bangalore (Karnataka) founded Health Sciences Library & Information Network (HELINET) on March 15th 2003. It is the first medical library consortium in the country which has twin objectives – networking the libraries in the colleges affiliated to the university to promote resource sharing; and to move these libraries gradually to digital main-stream.

Under the HELINET consortium, the member colleges can get access of around 700 scholarly, international biomedical journals, from 24 leading publishers, at about one-third of the price of their print subscription. It also provides the useful links to e-books and other reference sources in Biomedicine. Moreover, the member colleges can get all time access to the current journals as well as archives, i.e., the back-volumes of journals for a period of 7-10 years.

Figure : RGUHS-HELNET Consortium

(Source:http://www.rguhs.ac.in/HELINETHOSTCONSORTIUM/homehelinethost.htm)

Access to e journals of Williams & Wilkins, Elsevier Science, American Medical Association, W B Saunders Company, G.T. Verlag, MD Consult, Royal Society of Medicine, American College of Physicians, Springer, Lippincott, BMJ Publishing Group and Oxford University Press, etc. are available under this consortium. It also hosts the J-Gate, and J-Gate Custom Content for Consortia (JCCC) from Informatics India Ltd. for bibliographic databases.

JCCC-HELINET is an extension of JCCC, which is a customized e-journals access gateway and database solution for the HELINET Consortium. It provides a common gateway for one-point access, to e-journals subscribed by the consortium and facilitates the common search interface for all the participating members of the ‘Consortium’. JCCC@HELINET acts a comprehensive database of journal articles published in the journals subscribed by all medical colleges of RGUHS and available online. This service offers the various facilities and benefits to users, like – Common access to Table of Content (TOC), abstracts, and full-text articles.

(9). ICAST Consortia Initiative

Information Centre for Aerospace Science and Technology (ICAST) was established in the year 1989 to cater the information requirements of the Indian aerospace community in particular and the engineering and technical personnel in general – thus fully justifying its recognition as a National Information Centre by UNESCO, DSIR and AR&DB ‘Aerolnfo’ (http://www.aeroinfo.org.in), a world wide gateway for Aerospace Science & Technology portal has been created during 1998-1999 as consortium initiative. It serves as single point information search facility for the entire aerospace community in the world in general and India in particular. This site gives direct links to Science Direct, J-Gate, and Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics and Materials Science. It also gives access to the Union Catalogues of Holdings of NAL, IISc, RRI and the union list of current journals from 1997 onwards, subscribed in 16 major Aerospace & CSIR libraries.

ICAST also took the initiative to form a ‘Consortia for Campus-Wide Access to International Databases in Aerospace and Material Science (CoMSAC). Scientists from its all the three campuses at Belur, Kodihalli, and C-CADD/ CMMACS can access 12 bibliographic databases round the clock.

(10). IIM Libraries Consortia ((http://www.iimb.ernet.in/)

The idea of IIM Library Consortium was floated a few years back, when the IIMK took leadership in the formation of the IIM Consortia, and had the first meeting in Calicut. A pilot study was conducted to identify the currently subscribed digital resources among the IIMs. Subsequently the IIMs Directors, in a meeting held at IIM Kozikode during August 2001 approved the formation of the ‘Consortia’ and encouraged the librarians to actively participate for mutual benefit. Therefore, the librarians jointly identified the consolidated electronic resources, which will be of great relevance to the IIM community and invited the major publishers/ vendors of databases, journals and other value added service providers. Consequently, ABI/INFORM-fulltext, Business Sources Premier, Gale Products, Global Marketing Information Database, etc; and other resources, viz., EBSCO-BSE, EconLit-Ovid, CAPITALINE, INDIA INFORMER, etc. were priced in a rational way and were subscribed as consortium initiatives.

IIM Consortia being a closed proposition, identified two areas for partnership – developing the collection on shared basis; and developing the services exploiting such a collection. Consortia envisaged the operating principle of decentralized acquisition, decentralized processing and centralized utilization and access. In reality, they not only successfully executed a few shared acquisition services, like Science Direct of Elsevier, John Wiley electronic journals, and Kluwer electronic journals, Proquest and EBSCO services, but also identified more areas for partnership.

IIM Consortia Resources

1 Blackwell Hss Collection

2 Capitaline

3 Nexis.com+Corporate Information

4 ISI Emerging Markets

5 Kluwer Online

6 Talyor & Francis

7 John Wiley

E-resources at IIM Consortium

(Source : http://www.iimk.ac.in/libportal/iimconsortium.htm)

Recently, 13th Meeting of the IIM Library Consortium was held on September 28-29, 2012 at IIM Raipur, which was attended by the librarians of IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIMLucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Raipur, IIM Ranchi, IIM Trichy and IIM Kashipur (http://www.iimraipur.ac.in/news64.htm). It was discussed in meeting that IIM Library Consortium could be given a formal identity to financially empower it so that the Consortium as a distinct identity can negotiate on behalf of its members. The members also agreed that there is a great need to implement discovery and remote login services for enhancing usability of the e-resources. Among the discovery services, Ebsco’s EDS, J-Gate2, Serial solution’s Summons and Ex Libris’s Primo Central were considered and decided to take up the trials of Ebsco’s EDS and Ex Libris’s Primo Central to continue them further.

Members felt that assuring the access to archival content of journals (if they cease to exist), through services like CLOCKSS, needs to be explored. The members also felt that in addition to the existing three agreements with Taylor &Francis, Springer and Wiley, similar agreements be made with Sage, Institutional Investor, Palgrave MacMillan, Ebrary and NewsPaper Direct.

(11). INDEST – AICTE Consortium

“Indian National Digital library in Engineering sciences and Technology (INDEST) Consortium” was set up in 2003 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on the recommendations made by the Expert group appointed by the ministry under the chairmanship of Prof. N. Balaskrishnan. Consortium is re-named as INDEST-AICTE Consortium in December 2005 as the AICTE is playing pivotal role in enrolling its affiliated engineering colleges and institutions as members of the Consortium for selected e-resources at much lower rates of subscription.

INDEST-AICTE Consortium has the following three types of Members:

Core Member Institutions – comprising of 48 centrally-funded Government institutions including IITs, IISc, NITs, IIMs and few other institutions.
Members with Financial Support from the AICTE; and
Self-supported Engineering Colleges and Institutions.

Figure : INDEST-AICTE Consortium

Major objectives of INDEST – AICTE consortium are as follows:

to subscribe electronic resources for the members of the Consortium at highly discounted rates of subscription and at the best terms and conditions;
to extend the benefit of consortia-based subscription beyond the core members to other engineering and technological institutions;
to impart training to the users and librarians of the member institutions on subscribed electronic resources with an aim to optimize the usage of electronic resources;
to find more avenues of cooperation and interaction amongst member libraries;
to increase interactions amongst member institutions; and
to increase scientific productivity of member institutions in terms of quality and quantity of publications.

INDEST is subscribing following major e-resources for its member libraries.

Important E-Resources under INDEST

(Source: Anonymous, 2010)

(12). ISI Library Consortia

Consortia based subscription of electronic resources in the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Library, Kolkata, was first initiated by Mr. C. Bhattacharyya, the then Chief Librarian at a meeting of the Library Committee in the presence of the member coordinator, National Board of Higher Mathematics, DAE, GOI, held at ISI Library in 1999. The initiative came into existence with a consortia-based subscription to MathSciNet database, and the agreement was signed on 29th November 1999. Thus, ‘MathSciNet Consortium’ was established in association with several other institutes, universities, and learned societies from northern and eastern part of the country to enjoy the pricing benefits and to serve the member institutions, desire for the same subscription but having relatively limited budget.

Now it has got much recognition and the arrangement has now received wide spreads. More than 18 members has come under this Consortia, which includes S. N. Bose Institute of Basic Sciences — an organ of CSIR at Kolkata, University of Calcutta, Jadavpur, Kalyani, North-Bengal, Burdwan, Viswa-Bharati — from West Bengal (east India); Utkal University Sambalpur, from Orissa; University of Guwahati, Assam, Manipur, Tezpur — from northern part of the country, etc. Even Calcutta Mathematical Society has become a constituent member of this consortium.

ISI Library initiated another idea under the chairmanship of Professor D. Dasgupta, which was implemented in 2003 as a measure of duplicate or even triplicate journal subscription, simultaneously made by two branch libraries of ISI at Delhi and Bangalore, which made little economic senses and consumed excessive library space. Ultimately an arrangement of consortia-based subscription to Science-Direct— a division of Reed Elsevier Inc., was made with the Elsevier group of publishers, and a “License Agreement” was signed between the two parties. More than 1500 titles from Elsevier group of publishers (ES, AP, NH, Pergamon, Excerpta Medica, etc.) with excellent search facility and access to archives are being offered under this consortium. It also includes online full-text access to Elsevier journals over print subscriptions made by any of the three centers of ISI along with the complementary access to other centres. Additionally it provides online-full-text access to 48 journals — as selected by ISI faculty members from the Elsevier group of titles, in order to realize the amount of duplicated/ triplicated print subscriptions within three centers.

Consortia-based subscription to EconLit Database — electronic version of the Journal of Economic Literature, published by the American Economic Association is another initiative of ISI library which was started in 2003. ISI-Delhi Centre and Assam University, Guwawati University, and Tezpur University are the constituent members of this consortium. Users can simultaneously access (one/two) the ‘Database’ from their sites using authorization and password. However, this consortium did not have much recognition and coalition stopped in the year 2005.

(13). ISRO Libraries Consortia

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was established in August 1969 with the objective to develop space technology and its application to various national tasks. Over the years, Dept. of Space (DOS), Govt of India has built up a strong research, development and technology base with necessary infrastructure along with the library facilities for implementing the space programme through various space centres, viz. ISAC, VSSC, SHAR, SAC, LPSC, ILHP, DECU, ISTRAC, MCF, IISU, NRSA, PRL, NFRF, RRSSC, NE-SAC, etc.

All these centers are equipped with a good library, which plays a vital role by providing various sources of information to materialize the activities of those centers. Therefore, ISAC-Library circulated the agenda among librarians of major centres during April 2001 seeking specific data about journals, CD-ROM databases, package deals, and standing orders insisted to initiate the ‘ISRO Libraries Consortia’.

Finally, ISRO found a practical and useful solution through cooperative acquisition and/or consortia approach and ISRO consortium came into existence in the year 2001. Various CD-ROM Databases – Aerospace Database, Ei-Compendex Database, INSPEC on Disc, Ulrich+, Books in Print on Disc, NTIS (Silver-Platter & Dialog), AIAA on CD, etc., e-Journals -IEL (IEEE’s Electronic Library), and Online full-text access to other few costly journals are being provided to member libraries through this consortium.

(14). TIFR Libraries Consortium

TIFR Library, Mumbai, took a resource sharing initiative in 1999 among its five centers and six field stations libraries of the ‘Institute’. These centers (HBCSE, NCRA, CML, NSBS, and TIFR Bangalore Center for Mathematics) and field stations (HEGRO, GMRT, CRL, RAC, Gravitation Laboratory, and Balloon Facility station) are the constituent part of the TIFR Institute. Initially they started consortia-based subscription from AMS (MathSciNet) & Springer LINK (unlimited access to 250 titles on Computer Science Life Science, Math, Physics & Astronomy), for limited centers.

Subsequently they increased the co-operation and now they have several consortia-based subscriptions of electronic resources.While the TIFR members are experiencing with some common problems, such as of location, funding, negotiation, access to achieves, cancellation of print subscription, still they like to believe that their consortium initiatives seem to have bright future, and hoping to have more members to participate.

(15). VIC Consortium (ICICI-KP)

Virtual Information Centre (VIC) is a unique facility offered by ICICI Knowledge Park (IKP) that was set up with an objective of sharing the e-resources and ideas among the Park talents and member organizations. VIC provides a wide range of information services with the cooperation of several libraries and information centers that form the IKP’s Knowledge Network.

VIC acts as an electronic platform for fast and reliable access to information and interaction among industry, academia and public research institutions in Science & Technology. It links to digital resources of member partners and facilitates widespread library and literature search facilities in Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, Chemical, New materials, IT/ Telecom, etc. VIC offers various range of information services to its three groups of users – (a) Professionals and Research Scholars of more than 12 resident companies at the Park, (b) Premier Institutions of repute which are member-partners of the IKP Knowledge Network, and (c) Registered users by payment per year; such as R&D Institutions (Government & Private), Manufacturing companies, Institutes of higher learning, Small scale industries, Consultants & Individuals.

VIC consortium has also selected 500+ journal titles subscribed by one or several of the members. JCCC is a central database and gateway for the bibliographic content of these 500+ journals which are updated regularly. JCCC@VIC is a NISSAT-funded initiative to promote resource sharing, which helps the users in obtaining the full-text articles.

Lastly, few words about – UGC-INFONET. Though UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium does not fall under the category of special library consortia, but it needs its mention in the context of library consortia in Indian environment. UGC-INFONET is one of the largest consortia of the country, which was launched in 31st December 2003 by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the then President of India to support education and research in universities. It started its functioning from 1st Jan 2004.

UGC-INFONET provides current as well as archival access to 7,500 peer-reviewed journals and 10 bibliographic databases from 23 publishers and aggregators in different disciplines to academic community in universities comprising of faculty, staff, researchers and students. These e-resources cover almost all subject disciplines including arts, humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, chemical sciences, life sciences, computer sciences, mathematics, statistics, etc. Besides, other subject areas like law, management, education, etc., are also proposed to be added in the near future.

Presently UGC-purviewed universities are its members but its membership is also being opened for private universities / institutions on payment basis.

Summary

Thus, it is seen the resource sharing which was started as cooperative movement, especially for exchanging the documents on inter-library loan has travelled a lot from print-based medium to non-print and online media. IT [ICT] is a greatest achievement of the 20th century and it has effectively changed the world in to a global information society (Bhatt, 2002; Dhiman, 2003). Library and Information centres are also not the exception and untouched of this effect. In fact, ICT has made resource sharing a reality.

The emergence of Library & Information Networks was seen as the first step towards the sharing of the resources. Networks also helped the libraries to transform into digital ones. But the advent of www and paradigm shift from print to non-print publishing in online mode, library consortia emerged. Laxman Rao (2006) rightly describes the need for consortia, which, “deal collectively with the problems of purchasing online products, to benefit from the best possible volume pricing, and to secure the best terms of agreement from online publishers.”

As the world of library consortia is expanding rapidly with in the range of services and activities, library and information centre need to keep the pace with the development. It is noteworthy to mention that special libraries have done a lot and are doing best for providing best services to their users. However, if they do not make significant progress further their users to continue access of electronic information resources, it is the risk that the decision makers and key users will shop elsewhere for satisfaction of their information needs as was observed a long time back by Bjoernshauge (1999). So we need to keep the pace with the changing time and technologies for success and survival.

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