Expanding Information Access through Resource Sharing and Consortia in Science and Technology Libraries

Abstract

Science and Technology (S&T) libraries, especially in the developing countries, are experiencing not only problems such as poor budgetary support, lack of infrastructure and staff in less numbers with less expertise but the new marketing trends of consortia based pricing and delivering electronic information in diverse channels also. When individual libraries found their inability to satisfy the information requirements of their clients, they started various collaborating arrangements with other libraries such as, interlibrary loan services, document delivery services, resource sharing, etc. In the resource sharing arrangements, policy matters were formulated more emphatically to decide what materials are to be subscribed at each site. Unsteady fluctuation of Rupee over major foreign currencies, two digit percentage increase in subscription cost, constant or meagerly changing library budget forcing a drastic cut in subscriptions, etc., all strained libraries to adopt extensive resource sharing arrangements for costly information sources such as journals. To have an actual feel of the journal acquisition trends in our libraries, the 1995 subscription data of IIT Kharagpur is presented, along with some landmarks in resource sharing in the country. With the availability of substantial amount of primary information in electronic form and the affordability of computer and electronic gadgets in our libraries, an IT (Information Technology) enabled technocentric framework for resource sharing might be worked out as a viable alternative. The essential hardware, software, databases, personnel skills, copyright implications, etc. are discussed. In contrast to the earlier collaborative arrangements essentially attempted by libraries and librarians alone, the publisher and trade community has a major say in the consortia attempts as the emphasis will be to strike the best deals even if it requires sometimes to suffer some duplication. Some of the licensing models followed to deliver electronic information access is discussed with relevant information from few major S&T publishers. Though there were attempts from different corners to form consortia, the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) consortia for all the institutes under it may be operational from 2003 to provide electronic-access to important sources such as IEL online, ScienceDirect, ABI/Inform, Web of Science, SciFinder Scholar, etc. Apart from arriving at consortia based subscription and access, the paper suggests to evolve options like framing a national policy for scholarly information procuring and services, national S&T lending library, technocentric mode for resource sharing, twinning and subject based resource access network among institutions, article on demand (pay-per-view), and affordable national editions, to significantly expand and satisfactorily enhance information access in S&T libraries.