This document provides an overview of library consortia. It begins by defining a library consortium as a group of similar institutions that cooperate to achieve common goals like sharing resources. Consortia help address issues like rising costs and increasing user demand. They allow individual libraries to expand their reach through collaboration. The document then discusses the history and evolution of consortia. It outlines their key aims, needs, features, governing principles, functions, and benefits. Finally, it notes some issues around culture, commitment, resources, and dependencies on other organizations that consortia must address to be effective.

1. Consortia

2. 1
What is the Library Consortia?
Electronic publishing and telecommunication have enabled library consortia to evolve and
expand both in number and functions over the last decade. Library consortium development is
rooted in the history of library cooperative efforts and is now also driven by the need to provide
remote users with licensed access to electronic resources.
The father of Indian Librarianship has advised consortia approach well in advice in his
popular book “Five Laws of Library Science”. “Library is a growing organism”, one of the Five
Laws of Library Science given by Dr. S R Ranganathan, leads whole world to the flap of
Consortium. Consortium is the joint venture of homogeneous institutions working for the same
objectives. Being a part of consortium, and individual library can spread its wings all around the
world with more resources and more services. In today‟s scenario consortium is the cutthroat
need of the hour, especially for libraries. Library consortium is the virtual way to cope with the
different problems of libraries through proper coordination and cooperation.
Understanding Consortia :
Over the decade this concept has emerged as a growing area among the librarians, scholars,
and publishers. The ‘consortia’ is the plural form of ‘consortium’ but is often used in place of
singular form. It is derived from the Latin word for ‘fellowship’ that means ‘coming together
ofseparate groups for a purpose’. Synonymously the term is used as alliance, coalition,
collaboration, cooperation, partnership, etc. Consortium is a complicated organization. It is „an
association‟ in the sense that is not commonly understood, i.e., a consortium is not a library
association, although some associations of libraries may engage in consortia activities.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, consortium means a “temporary cooperation of a
number of powers, companies, etc. for a common purpose. It is an association of similar type of
organization/institution who are engaged for production and servicing the common things for
providing services for a specific purpose of its users”.
Aims of the Library Consortia :
The primary objective of the Library Consortium is to encourage and facilitate interlibrary
communication, education and resource sharing within its diverse multi-type library
membership.

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Today Consortium purpose is shifted from mere sharing of resources to sharing of expertize
between libraries and also explores the need for libraries to make the most effective use of their
funds collectively.
Need for Library Consortia :
Academic (University & College) Libraries & Research Center Libraries with the impact of
Information Technology are compelled to provide relevant information essential to its end users
within a short time either from its in-house holdings or through consortia.
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
the users.
- They 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, because
of the library financial crunch.
- They may be used overcome the language barriers i.e. :- primary documents are being
published by the developed countries like USA, UK, France, Japan, etc., and among them
the non-English speaking countries produce majority of scientific literatures in their
mother languages.
Principles to Govern the Consortia :
The important principles for governing them are listed below :
- Flexibility to choose your own library management solutions vendor and select the
member libraries with which you will share resources.
- Flexibility to own, manage, and control your library‟s records and enforces its policies.

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- Flexibility to extend access to even more information with an information portal that
shows your library‟s face.
- Flexibility to share physical and digital resources.
Functions of the Library Consortia :
The main functions of consortia are Collection Sharing, Electronic Content Licensing,
Electronic Content Loading/Presentation, Inter - Library Loan / Document Delivery,
Preservation of documents. Also to gives training to involved library staff and making Union
Lists / Shared Online Catalogues and working on new forms of scholarly and scientific
communication.
Benefits of Library Consortia :
1) Foster Resource Sharing –
Besides sharing financial resources, members of consortia can share a variety of
other resources. Sharing catalogues, sharing collections and in collection development
and content creation.
2) Enhance Library Services to the Users –
O‟connor described the benefit of consortia to be customer-focused. If becoming a
consortium member is not going to benefit the library‟s users, then the library must
question its reasons for becoming a member.
3) Improves Quality of Library Services –
Libraries turned to consortia as a way to share information about and to foster best
practices, and to reduce the unit cost of providing core services.
4) Increase Financial Benefit –
One of the most common reasons that libraries join consortia is to gain some financial
benefit.
5) Encourage for Discussion, Collective thinking and Leadership –
Leadership is also an important part of library management. Consortium services
manage more than the cost and a consortium can do this by providing leadership for its

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members that generates cooperative action for the advancement of educational
environment.
6) Facilitates the ‘Change Management’ –
One of the most complex issues facing libraries today is change management. Change
management is the process of minimizing those risks and optimizing the opportunities.
7) Provides Training and Workshop –
The consortium can play an invaluable role by providing training and organizing new
programs of promotional activities – library improvement plan, classroom library plan,
schools of library computerization, etc. to upgrade the existing staffs.
8) Enables Better Access –
Promote better, faster and more cost-effective ways of providing access to electronic
information resources to the information seekers.
9) Facilitates Better Management –
Consortia can manage the electronic information resources in a better way and save
the library from the hassle of print-resource management.
10) Sustains the Pressure –
Library consortia‟s successfully meet the pressure of diminishing budget, increased
user‟s demand, and rising cost of library resources.
11) Protects from Duplication –
The duplication of materials (cost), time, and effort can be minimized and savings and
access can be maximized.

6. 5
Issues and Problems related to consortia :
Publishers, vendors, aggregators are important factors of consortia without them it is
impossible to trying to expand the electronic information sources and services. There are some
other issues and problem in consortia if those are take into consideration then only libraries can
tackle in order to streamline cooperative and consortia efforts these are as follows:
1. Culture of working together to carry out cooperative projects;
2. Commitment to cooperation;
3. Mutual understanding;
4. Consensus building;
5. Patience;
6. Skills of planning, organization and administration;
7. Knowledge;
8. Human resources;
9. Monetary resources; and,
10. Common intelligence.
It is of vital importance for libraries to overcome all the difficulties and join forces
together to provide better electronic information services to their users. With the help of these
issues libraries also will get the idea about how to play important role as part of consortia.

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CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research)
The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) the premier industrial R & D
organization in India was constituted in 1942 by a resolution of the then Central Legislative
Assembly. It is an autonomous body registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860.
CSIR Network of R & D Laboratories:
Jammu, Palampur, Chandigarh, Dehra Dun, Ghaziabad, Pilani, Delhi, Lucknow, Bhopal, Pune,
Bhavnagar, Goa, etc.
CSIR organization structure:

8. 7
When it was started?
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has 40 national laboratories carrying out
R&D work in the areas of Engineering, Biological, Chemical, Physical, Environmental and
Information Sciences. Put together these laboratories subscribe to about 3100 unique titles by
spending about Rs. 25 crores. More than US $ 1.3 million is spent on Elsevier titles alone. Based
on the recommendations of the laks force and the negotiation committee appointed by CSIR all
1700 Elsevier e-journals have been made available to all 40 laboratories since July 2002. The
funding being from single source. CSIR consortia did not face much difficulty to make the
payment. However there have been some problems in the matter concerned continued
subscriptions to print titles as per the agreement by some laboratories. Few laboratories like
NAL, NCL, IMTECH, NIO, RRLT have been providing access to Elsevier titles since quite
some time. The negotiations with other publishers like Kluwer (550 titles) and Springer (450
titles) is in the advanced stage. Attempts have been made to make available the J-Gate Custom
Contents for Consortia (JCCC) to all laboratories.
CSIR Consortium sponsored by CSIR for providing access to Elsevier Science journals.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and
premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act
of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the city of Pretoria. It is the largest
research and development (R&D) organisation in Africa and accounts for about 10% of the
entire African R&D budget. It has a staff of approximately 3,000 technical and scientific
researchers, often working in multi-disciplinary teams.
The CSIR's main areas of research are:
 Biosciences
 Built environment
 Defence, peace, safety and security
 Information and communications technology
 Laser technology
 Materials science and manufacturing
 Mobile intelligent autonomous systems
 Nanotechnology
 Natural resources and the environment
 Space technology

9.  Synthetic Biology
8
Research centres at the CSIR :
 National Laser Centre
 Meraka Institute
 Centre for Mining Innovation
Services Provided by CSIR :
CSIR is a client-oriented, performanace-driven and accountable organization actively
involved in generation of knowledge and techonologies, development of product or process and
also its transition to the marketplace. With its extensive resource base, core competence that cuts
across the entire spectrum of science, innovative and skilled manpower, cost-effective solutions,
and adherence to strict time frames, CSIR has always exceeded that demands made on it.
Membership
Services
Resources
Online Catalogue
Open Access Resource
Services provided in CSIR Library :
1) Ciculation –
This is the most basic service of the KRC. This would continue till the printliterature is
available and subscribed. The functions of circulation include issue,and returns, of the
documents, reminders, reservation of documents, overduecharges, membership, ILL, etc.
The KRC should shift to the automatedcirculation system if not done already including
bar code/RFID.
2) On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) –
Good number of CSIR KRCs have created their databases using one or theother of the
integrated library automation systems. However, some of them haveported these on a
stand alone system and not on the network.
3) ILL/ Document delivery–

10. The Interlibrary loan (ILL) has been a traditional service and a corner stone
forcooperation amongst libraries. However, this is normally a „manual‟ service, wherein
9
some cases the complete volume/book may have to lent and in fewcases only the
concerned article.
4) Reference service –
Traditionally this service is being offered using print reference tools which maycontinue.
However, with the availability of access to the Internet resources toevery user, the user
prefers to find solutions to his/her needs over Internet.
5) Bibliographic / full-text database search –
While one can access a number of full-text journals either for fee or free, the importance
of bibliographies would still continue. This is so because, they aremorecomprehensive
and cover various publishers, document types, etc.
6) User orientation programs –
User orientation programs are an essential component for proper utilization ofresources
available within and outside the organization. This is usuallyconducted through user
familiarization especially for the fresh / novice users andadvanced orientation for all the
other users.
7) Alerts –
Traditionally, this service was offered in the form of Current Awareness and
SDIServices. Now publishers/ service providers/ open access search enginesprovide a
variety of alert services. Librarians can play a major role in identifyingand enabling end
users to avail such services effectively.
8) Patents search –
Patent resources are one of the important resources for R&D and globalcompetitiveness.
Full-texts of the patents of many countries are freely availableon their respective
websites. Patents search needs specialized expertiseand therefore an intermediary is
essential to search and provide the informationto end-users.
9) News clipping –
A very few labs run web based News Clipping service. News and reports appearing in the
media, especially in news papers, relevant toS&T in general and the organization in
particular constitute an important set ofinformation. Identifying, capturing, archiving and
disseminating this informationconstitute a useful service.

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10) Translation –
Large number of publications are being published in languages other thanEnglish which
necessitates availability of that information in English language forunderstanding and
assimilating as an input for further advancement of S&T.
11) Access to e-resources –
The information resources are available in e-form and the publishers are offeringthese
under various models. The libraries may avail access to resourcesrelevant to their area in
e-form. These may be e-journals, databases, e-booksand other monographs, etc. Access
may be on consortium or individuallaboratory basis.
12) Access to Open Access (OA) Sources –
Substantial number of journals are available in open access, and KRCs mayselect
relevant journals from the lists to provide a link from their websites. One can also make
use of Directory of Open Access Journals (DoAJ)and Open J-Gate.
13) Digital libraries –
Digitization of resources for archival and allied services has emerged as anaccepted
practice. It covers digitization of documents available in the library andcapturing and
archiving of the resources already available elsewhere.
14) Institutional repositories –
Institutional repositories (IRs) are one type of open access initiatives providingvisibility
for the research outputs of the institutes. More than 30 IRs have alreadybeen setup in
India out of which 3 are from CSIR laboratories. While some of theCSIR labs are in the
process of developing IRs, some have already given thelinks to the full-texts of their
publications as html links. All CSIR labs shouldeventually develop their IRs. One of the
laboratories can lead the move byharvesting the metadata of all IRs of CSIR laboratories.
15) Content creation –
Information exists in a variety of forms. Technically, it is not so difficult to createa
website, but contents creation is a challenging task. Librarians havetraditionally been
trained in collecting, organizing and archiving information andtherefore they can ably
undertake this activity, especially aspects such asmanpower and project information,
news and events information, data literaturepublished by the CSIR laboratories, etc.

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Impact of CSIR :
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa is one of the leading
scientific and technology research, development and implementation organizations in Africa. It
undertakes directed research and development for socio-economic growth.
Impact is central to the CSIR mandate -
The CSIR‟s ultimate objective is to have a beneficial effect on the economy, society and
environment that we live in. The organisation‟s mandate calls for the improvement of the quality
of life of the people of South Africa: impact is at the heart of the CSIR‟s undertakings.
Furtherincreasing the impact of our RDI -
Examples of the beneficial effect of CSIR research, development and innovation (RDI) on the
economy, society and the environment that we live in, span more than six decades. But, the
enormous development challenges facing the country have resulted in a more urgent call than
ever for relevant science to support national priorities. In a bid to respond to this call and to even
further increase the impact of our RDI so that the lives of South Africans can improve sooner
and in greater measures, the organisation set about sharpening its research and development
(R&D) focus.
The CSIR defines impact as the difference made in the economy, environment, society and the
quality of life of people resulting from the implementation and exploitation of knowledge and
solutions resulting from the CSIR‟s research and development activities.
In dealing with impact, the CSIR undertakes both its planning and monitoring based on the entire
innovation process, from input to outcome and eventual impact. The organisation understands
that planning – during which the desired impact is formulated – is the first step. We pursue
impact through numerous pathways, including formal technology transfer processes involving
the formal protection and licensing of intellectual property; skills transfer; knowledge transfer in
support of decision-making or science contributions to the knowledge base.

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The importance of our stakeholders in making an impact-
The CSIR places a premium on the involvement of its stakeholders – recognizing that impact can
be maximized through close stakeholder involvement in all facets of the innovation chain. We
believe that stakeholders should be involved from the early planning stages. The CSIR‟s
stakeholders typically include research partners, paying customers, government departments and
the ultimate beneficiaries. We acknowledge all our stakeholders, who continue to believe in the
potential that science and technology can unlock, and pay tribute to those who have implemented
solutions that have made a difference. We would like to continue to work with you in sharing the
stories of our progress.
Demonstrating our impact
The CSIR has started a web-based impact series in a conscious effort to convey the stories of
problems solved; solutions implemented; and recommendations taken up. We will also share
some case studies which have resulted in longer-term outcomes with significant societal,
economic or environmental impact.
Conclusion :
Library consortiumdevelopment is rooted in the history of library cooperative efforts and is now
also driven by the need to provide remote users with licensed access to electronic resources. A
rapid growth of consortia has taken place with the changing environment of libraries. Over 150
library consortia and represents over 5000 member libraries worldwide.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research ,
Singh, A.P. (2005). Library Without Walls. EssEss Pub., New Delhi.p357.
http://rdpp.csir.res.in/csir_acsir/Home.aspx
http://rdpp.csir.res.in/csir_acsir/Home.aspx?MenuId=8
http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=services+of+csir

14. Dhiman, A. K. (2012). Manual of Digital Libraries. Ess Ess Pub., New Delhi. P798.