Academic Library Consortium Research Articles

Assessing the Value of Academic Library Consortia

ABSTRACT The value proposition of academic library consortia often focuses on the benefits a member library expects to receive in return for its paid membership in a consortium. This article takes a look at the literature of library and information science as well as the Web sites of 45 academic library consortia to understand how consortia communicate their benefits, especially in terms of financial value. It initiates a discussion about how academic library consortia could adopt assessment measures that strengthen their value proposition and improve the ways they demonstrate their impact and the impact that their members wield within higher education.

Consortial Cataloging Guidelines for Electronic Resources: I-Share Survey and Recommendations

In 2009, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) charged a task force to update and revise recommendations that address cataloging practice and catalog access to electronic resources for libraries participating in the I-Share union catalog. This article presents the results of a survey and recommendations developed by the 2009 Task Force that cover all types of e-resources. Issues covered include: single or separate records for electronic and print versions of a title; the use of aggregator-neutral and provider neutral records; the construction and placement of the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and notes; and the use of vendor records.

Challenges and Prospects of Consortia: A Case Study of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH)

This study sought to find out the prospects and challenges of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH). Questionnaires were sent to 18 members of the consortium and 15 were retrieved, giving a response rate of 83%. The results indicated that members enjoy access to electronic resources at reduced cost, free training workshops and seminars, and technical support in the use of electronic resources. However, there were challenges such as foreign exchange problems, inability to obtain full access to some databases, and difficulties in dealing with publishers. Some recommendations have been made to enhance the prospects of the consortium.

Usability of the VuFind Next-Generation Online Catalog

The VuFind open–source, next-generation catalog system was implemented by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois as an alternative to the WebVoyage OPAC system. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign began offering VuFind alongside WebVoyage in 2009 as an experiment in next generation catalogs. Using a faceted search discovery interface, it offered numerous improvements to the UIUC catalog and focused on limiting results after searching rather than limiting searches up front. Library users have praised VuFind for its Web 2.0 feel and features. However, there are issues, particularly with catalog data.

Academics are Reading More Electronic Journal Articles in More Subjects, Using Varying Strategies to Find and Manage Them

Objective – To assess how the increase in number of electronic journals available to academic scholars has changed their information-seeking or consulting behaviour, with respect to 1) the amount and diversity of sources they read; 2) strategies they use to keep up-to-date in their fields; 3) use of personalized information services; 4) determining the value and relevance of articles; and 5) personal management of scientific information. This study is a follow-up to an earlier quantitative study (Borrego, Anglada, Barrios, & Comellas, 2007) in the same setting.
 
 Design – Qualitative, using an open-ended questionnaire, followed by personal interviews of a small group of the respondents.
 
 Setting – Universities that are members of the Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC), which is made up of the eight public Catalan universities and the National Library of Catalonia, Spain.
 
 Subjects – One hundred thirty-seven scholars from the member universities of diverse ages and disciplines. Eleven of these academics were selected for personal interviews.
 
 Methods – The authors used a two-staged approach to gather comments from researchers on their use of electronic journals. First, an open-ended, self-administered questionnaire (with some pre-testing done) was sent by e-mail to some 490 academics who had provided e-mail addresses in the quantitative study; 137 were returned and analyzed. Personal interviews were then conducted with 11 scholars who had given the most detailed answers in the questionnaire. Their ages ranged from 28 to 67; each was from a different discipline, and from six of the universities.
 
 Informed consent sheets (describing the study and guaranteeing anonymity) were given to the 11 interviewees. Personal interviews were conducted in the subjects’ offices by one of the authors, and lasted between 45-60 minutes. In the interview stage, the authors wanted to examine: use and assessment of the library, access to electronic information, and impact of e-resources on information behaviour. Subjects were also asked to provide three suggestions on improving access to scientific information.
 
 Main Results – The amount of reading and number of electronic journals and other sources consulted among the scholars who participated in this study has increased. Three-quarters of survey respondents consult more journals and read more articles. The scholars reported that they are grateful for the increase in electronic information and its enhanced ease of access, and are not overwhelmed by it. Their reading has become more discriminatory, though, with many reporting “skimming” much of what they read to save time. Scholars keep up-to-date in three main ways: web browsing of journal issues, library database searches, and TOC e-mail alerts. More than 90% of survey respondents reported conducting database searches. Google and Google Scholar were often mentioned ahead of specific library database names. In determining value and relevance of an article, its author and abstract are key for scholars. In addition, personal information management techniques used by scholars were all over the board. The three main methods were use of print or electronic folders, reference management software, and no system. Many of the academics felt their information management systems were “rudimentary” (p. 225).
 
 The request for suggestions and comments on the questionnaire was not answered by “most of the sample” (p. 226). Those who did respond to this request asked for more library resources. The main complaint expressed by scholars concerned the difficulty and complexity of finding journal article content using the Library website (e.g., varying databases, difficulty of interpreting what journal electronic and print holdings are available). Because of this, a number of scholars used Google to find library-subscribed content.
 
 Conclusion – By having greater and easier access to e-journals, scholars accessing the CBUC read more articles from more disciplines. Scholars would prefer a simpler library interface to search for online content. Due to the complexity of finding article content, they use web search tools like Google and Google Scholar to get to what they need faster. The authors of this study believe research should be conducted on the use of the Consortium’s metasearch tool to reduce the complexity. Research should also be conducted on value-added features of search interfaces for particular disciplines.

Measuring the Use of Networked Electronic Journals in an Academic Library Consortium: Moving beyond MINES for Libraries® in Ontario Scholars Portal

Academic library consortia, faced with requirements of assessment and accountability, are increasingly pressured to measure the impact of their networked electronic services. Studies on usage of electronic library resources and electronic journals, in particular, proliferate; relatively few focus on the academic library consortium. This paper gives an overview of one assessment tool, MINES for Libraries®, as implemented in the Scholars Portal service of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). The novel contributions of this study are twofold: firstly, the creation of peer groups within an academic consortium for comparison purposes, and secondly, the use of regression analysis to explore the correlation between usage and three separate variables outside the MINES survey — library print holdings, library acquisitions budget, and sponsored research revenue.

Measuring the Use of Networked Electronic Journals in an Academic Library Consortium: Moving beyond MINES for Libraries® in Ontario Scholars Portal

Academic library consortia, faced with requirements of assessment and accountability, are increasingly pressured to measure the impact of their networked electronic services. Studies on usage of electronic library resources and electronic journals, in particular, proliferate; relatively few focus on the academic library consortium. This paper gives an overview of one assessment tool, MINES for Libraries®, as implemented in the Scholars Portal service of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). The novel contributions of this study are twofold: firstly, the creation of peer groups within an academic consortium for comparison purposes, and secondly, the use of regression analysis to explore the correlation between usage and three separate variables outside the MINES survey — library print holdings, library acquisitions budget, and sponsored research revenue.

UALC Best Practices Metadata Guidelines: A Consortial Approach

The Utah Academic Library Consortium Task Force, formed from two of Utah Academic Library Consortium's standing committees, Cataloging and Digitization, was established to improve metadata for new digital and special collections input by the Mountain West Digital Library's members (http://www.mwdl.org). This article describes issues relating to metadata policies developed for a library consortium consisting of university, college, and public libraries and museums and historical societies in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. It will explore the need for best practices, current and ongoing challenges with metadata in general, and the considerations taken in developing guidelines entitled: Metadata Guidelines for the Mountain West Digital Library.

Developing a SCM-based Evaluation System for the Korean Academic Library Consortium

Academic resource sharing among universities is desperately needed for overcoming a national shortage of information resources. However, there is no appropriate evaluation system to reflect the overall performance of resource sharing and joint efforts of library consortia. The Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept is the systemic, strategic coordination of business functions, which includes collaboration with partners for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole. This concept is not yet familiar in the library field, but will be useful to apply a comprehensive evaluation system for academic library consortium performance. This study describes how evaluation systems based on the SCM concept can be developed for academic resource-sharing services. In this study, the meaning and status of academic resource sharing services among university libraries in Korea will be discussed, along with their current performance evaluation systems. Also, the Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) as a supply chain evaluation system will be analyzed to review the corresponding applicability in academic resource sharing services. Based on this information, an evaluation system which includes evaluation factors and methods for the performance of academic resource sharing services will be developed. Based on SCOR performance measurement index level 1, the evaluation factors for academic library consortium were developed. Customer response, flexible countermeasures, partnership, human resource development, and cost minimization were selected as major performance evaluation factors, and 14 sub-indices were proposed. Evaluation methods and some examples of the application which included Likert scale questions in surveys, quantitative analysis using statistics, and quantitative questions in surveys also were proposed.

Elizabeth King Eaton, 1943–2009

Elizabeth King Eaton, 1943–2009

Tough Economic Times Call for More Library Cooperation: Report on a Wyoming and Colorado Alliance Conference

On April 10, 2009, the Alliance, a consortium of academic, public and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming, convened a conference on “Cooperation: How to Thrive Despite Reduced Funding.” Drawing on the expertise of national and state leaders in the fields of education and economics, conference participants heard from two keynote speakers about the changing environment of libraries and educational institutions. Referencing these changes, then, various local librarians explored ways collaboratively to advance library resources and services. An overview of these conference presentations perhaps may help libraries and their partners in other regions of the United States and elsewhere gain insight into possible collaborative strategies that sustain library development in difficult economic times.

Relative National Membership and Self-Reports of Professional Activity Among Academic Science, Engineering and Medical Librarians

Past surveys of science, engineering and medical librarians who work in college and university library systems have yielded contradictory results over which of two associations, the Science and Technology Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL-STS) or the Special Libraries Association (SLA), is likely to lead in membership. This study determines that, at the national level, the ACRL-STS clearly has as many as three times the members working in these settings. This begs the question as to why SLA is nonetheless named by survey respondents as an affiliation at least half the time, or by those who otherwise respond indicating an involvement with an SLA meeting or listserv at a rate that would be higher than this national ratio would predict. This author theorizes that three factors might very well play a role in priming this participation and subsequent recall of activities in favor of SLA. The three parts of his theory include the respondent's proximity to academic SLA STM librarians, an awareness of the general success of SLA members in attainment of elective professional office, and success in SLA member recruitment by elite institutions. An analysis of SLA membership rolls indicates that academic SLA STM librarians are indeed very widely dispersed around the country, giving them opportunities to become well-known in many academic library consortia. Additionally, academic SLA STM librarians are highly active within SLA and frequently hold key offices on local and national levels, an achievement that is likely to be noticed by colleagues in academic librarianship. Finally, the greatest concentration of academic SLA STM librarians in all regions is at any of that area's universities that are rated as being one of America's most selective or ranked in the top 50 nationally, enhancing a possible connection of SLA membership with occupational success in a way that also encouraged participation in some exploration or participation in SLA activities or functions.

Use and Users of Electronic Journals at Catalan Universities: The Results of a Survey

We present the results of a survey on the use of electronic journals by the academic staff of the universities belonging to the Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC). The results show that a high proportion of teaching and research staff are aware of the collection of electronic journals and that there is an increasing preference for the electronic to the detriment of the printed format. The collection of electronic journals is highly valued and most users expect to increase their use of them during the next few years. The results also confirm the importance of discipline and age as explanatory factors of the use of electronic journals.

Academic Library Consortia in South Africa: Where We Come From and Where We are Heading

The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the establishment of the five academic library consortia in South Africa, their status quo, and summary of their successes and plans for the future

Allocation of Costs for Electronic Products in Academic Library Consortia

As the prevalence of consortial licenses for electronic products increases, consortia face decisions about how to allocate costs for these products among participating libraries. Although there are a number of possible formulae for this, some are problematic in that they result in inequitable cost allocations in certain circumstances. Several methods for apportioning costs within consortia are discussed, including equal division by institution and proportional division by institutional FTE, as well as a combination of these. Other methods evaluated include proportional distribution of cost savings, a method utilizing bids, and usage-based distributions.

Análisis: Actividades open access de los consorcios del SELL y del CBUC

The article briefly introduces a variety of recent experiences from projects concerning Open Access information and institutional repositories developed within the boundaries of the Southern European Libraries Link (SELL) and, more specifically, the experience of the Catalan Consortium of Academic Libraries (CBUC), a member of SELL.

What's the Big Deal?

SUMMARY This paper is based on a presentation given by Loretta Ebert, Director of the Rensselaer Research Libraries at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It followed a presentation given by Kenneth Frazier similarly titled, “What's the Big Deal?” in which he discussed his institution's rationale for avoiding Big Deals. In this paper, the utilization of the Big Deal by a consortium of independent academic libraries in New York State provides an example of emerging models of collaboration among libraries that demonstrate cost-effective use of Big Deals, value-added collections and improved access for scholars regardless of their institutional affiliations. A shared electronic collection provides a case study for analyzing variable cost and usage data across members of a consortium and the elements that contributed to a successful collaboration.

THE NoWAL NETLIBRARY E-BOOK COLLECTION: A CASE STUDY OF A CONSORTIAL AGREEMENT

This paper gives an account of the procurement of a large collection of electronic books by NoWAL, the North West Academic Libraries Consortium.

PALCI's Virtual Union Catalog

One of the newest statewide, academic library consortia, PALCI launched E-ZBorrow, a virtual union catalog, in 1999. Although only 35% of all eligible libraries participate, they serve 73% of the students, employ 66% of the faculty, and represent 66% of the total volumes among PA academic libraries. This article examines requests and loans during the first three years. Both are positively correlated with the size of the institution. Further examination indicates, however, that the Baccalaureate Colleges generated the most requests per user and had a greater demand placed on their collections. It is shown that the collection strength of all libraries increases with participation in E-ZBorrow.

E-books from netLibrary for the North West Academic Libraries consortium

E-books from netLibrary for the North West Academic Libraries consortium