Consortia Initiative: An Emerging Paradigm Towards Sustainable Growth of North Eastern Regional Libraries in India

Document Type

Conference Article

Publication Title

Proceedings of the First PLANNER Convention

Abstract

There has oeen a sea change in knowlf!dge productiQn & dissemination world over and a dramatic turn is noticed towards the electronic information society in'last two decades. Too many explanations are due behind this change. However, the libraries are growing in a rapid changing environment. The ongoing phenomena, such as Information as a commodity, growth in quantity, new methods of scholarly communications, complex technological requiremellts. tough economic &political circumstances, increased user demand, diminishing budget, raising cost of publications. and the changing concept of ownership to access are the serious concern. These cannot be reversed. Moreover the price escalation in journal subscription has great impact on libraries. Therefore, most of the LIMs are experiencing with the budgetary constraints. With these prevalent situations and the confusing array of pricing models has resulted in significant growth in number of 'Library Consortia '. This paper examines the consortia as 'an organization' and is one of the emerging toolkits for libraries to survive. It also recognizes the growth of library consortia across the globe as well as in India. A special emphasis has been made to INFLIBNET efforts done in this direction. An encouraging sign is being observed in the recent growth of consortia ill Indian libraries. The INDEST & INFLIBNET (under UGC InfoNet) consortia are the most ambitious among the initiatives taken so far in the country. This paper also emphasizes the barriers towards the formation of consortia, especially in Indian context.

First Page

253

Last Page

276

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Comments

Open Access

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