International Coalition of Library Consortia

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The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) is an informal, self-organized group of library consortia from around the world; it exists for the strategic and practical discussions of issues of common interest among its consortia members. The ICOLC first met informally as the Consortium of Consortia (COC) in 1997. Over time, its name was adjusted to reflect its increasingly global character.

Contents

A library consortium is any local, regional, or national cooperative association of libraries that provides for the systematic and effective coordination of the resources of academic, public, school and special libraries and information centers, and for improving services to the clientele of those libraries. [1] Consortia conduct their business to advance research and learning, share resources and expertise, provide easy access to information and high-quality content (electronic resources), enable continuous professional development and strengthen library leadership as education and information providers.

All library consortia, anywhere in the world, may be part of the ICOLC as there are no membership fees or barriers to participation. The ICOLC gathers its strength from sharing information and strategies about the benefits that its members bring to libraries and their users. These benefits can include:

Members

There are currently 238 consortia participating in ICOLC. [2]

ICOLC represents both formally organized and informal consortia. That is, consortial groups range from informal with no central office, a rotating leadership, and volunteer service; the most formal may be legally incorporated, have an organized office in a larger government agency or NGO, with large permanent staff. Consortia may adjust and change over time: a hallmark of cooperative work.

Consortia can come in many different shapes and sizes—comprising dozens even to hundreds of libraries down to groups of a handful. Some have broad programs that bring libraries together, while many are mainly brought together to license electronic resources for common use. Consortia not only vary in size, but they are also very diverse. Consortia vary in terms of mission, scope, funding sources, total funding, staffing, and more. ICOLC's member consortia may be confined to specific library types (e.g., special libraries, academic libraries, public libraries) or government agencies, or can comprise multi-type libraries, which may be regional or cover broad regions, nation, or more. Many libraries belong to more than one, to achieve different purposes.

Operations

The ICOLC serves participating organizations by facilitating discussion among consortia on issues of common interest. It conducts meetings that rotate in locations around the world. The closed session/invitational meetings happen twice a year (North American venue in spring; European venue in fall) to keep consortia informed about new e-resources, pricing practices of information providers and vendors, and other issues of importance to directors, governing boards, and library members. During these meetings, ICOLC may meet with selected information providers, to discuss their offerings and to engage in dialog about issues of mutual concern. But the primary purpose of the meetings is information exchange and discussion across the consortia.

In particular, the ICOLC has distinguished itself with important public statements about key common issues, meant for wide distribution in order to advance discussion with partners, suppliers, and publishers—and to communicate expertise. Of special significance and impact have been the 2004 ICOLC Statement of Current Perspective and its widely disseminated and discussed successor statements of January 2009 [3] and June 2010 [4] These received wide play in the media and were the topics of a great deal of conversation throughout the consortial and scholarly communications industries.

Proposals for statements ICOLC may issue come from within the ICOLC membership (in meetings, via e-mail); they gather support from members and take shape when a small working group is assigned to draft a statement. All ICOLC members are invited to review the drafts online and suggest changes, with iterated revision by a stated deadline. After there is a consensus via endorsements, the Statement is posted on the ICOLC web site and disseminated through a variety of media.

All library consortia anywhere in the world are welcome to participate in the activities of ICOLC and identify themselves as participating consortia. Interested consortia, as they so choose, submit profiles for the ICOLC web site, join a common e-mail list, send representatives to meetings, participate in the meeting programs, and avail themselves of the common expertise of the organization.

History

Library cooperation in the United States has been around for more than a century, and a number of useful writings exist, documenting this type of cooperative activity and history. [5] For example, since the 1930s, intentional, cooperative sharing of collections was pursued among the "Triangle" Universities in North Carolina (Duke University, North Carolina State University, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). [6]

Shared cataloging through OCLC and RLG brought libraries together in the 1960s and 1970s, while the 1980s saw movement to fast delivery for books and articles. [7] A significant new impetus, however, came in the mid-1990s with the large-scale licensing of electronic resources, launched by publishers such as Encyclopædia Britannica and Academic Press. Explosive growth followed and with it awareness of a need for coordinating the work of consortia themselves.

The ICOLC began in 1996; by 2000 the then-Web site (hosted at Yale University Library [since migrated to a Lyrasis host]) recorded 135 member groups; and by fall 2011, 236 had contributed their profiles. In 2000, 2/3 member consortia were located in the US; by 2012, North American consortia represented only 60%, with member consortia from 44 other countries. [8] In summer 2012, the ICOLC web site moved to its current location and members were asked to revise and re-contribute descriptions to the site. [9] As of the end of April 2013, 150 (from 43 countries) had done so.

ICOLC's organization is entirely informal. It is not a legal organization, there are no dues, there are no elected officials, there are no bylaws, or other rules of engagement. Committees are established as necessary; there is some continuity in the meeting planning committees (both in North America and in Europe), and other task forces are established ad hoc to address specific statements or issues before the group. While the ICOLC leadership is entirely voluntary there are consortia and consortial staff that provide ongoing, continuous and long standing planning, support, and leadership. The ICOLC leadership is organic and evolutionary from within the community.

Library consortia – contemporary activities

Library consortia pursue a range of cooperative activities and host many projects, for example: resource sharing and inter-library lending; rationalizing and sharing print collections; building shared integrated library management systems; training; digitization programs; and advocacy, to name a few.

Electronic resources licensing is a focus for many consortia; many factors motivate consortial licensing. For some, government support and funding for electronic access for students, citizens and researchers is a strong driver—often for groups of institutions as large as an entire nation's collection of libraries. In all cases, negotiating with multiple institutions at once can save publishers and information providers as well as libraries time and money. Also, there are significant benefits when libraries work together to discuss and analyze terms of use in provider licenses, where the shared goal is to maximize access while ensuring financially stable publishing models.

The ICOLC actively supports and facilitates consortial content licensing, along with emerging possibilities for cross-consortial and cross-country arrangements.

Related Research Articles

Interlibrary loan is a service that enables patrons of one library to borrow physical materials and receive electronic documents that are held by another library. The service expands library patrons' access to resources beyond their local library's holdings, serving as "an integral element of collection development" for libraries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consortium</span> Association of two or more individuals and/or organizations to achieve a common goal

A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OCLC</span> Global library cooperative (1967–)

OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, then became the Online Computer Library Center as it expanded. In 2017, the name was formally changed to OCLC, Inc. OCLC and thousands of its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries pay for the many different services it offers. OCLC also maintains the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium that existed from 1974 until its merger with the OCLC library consortium in 2006. RLG developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions, and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections. It also developed a framework known as the "RLG Conspectus" for evaluating research library collections, which evolved into a set of descriptors used in library collection policy statements, last updated in 1997. The Library of Congress used the conspectus in 2015 in revising its own collection policy statement, and decided to retain this resource on its website, as a helpful scale for judging an academic collection's depth.

The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management and improved support for teaching and research. In collaboration with the ten University of California Libraries and other partners, CDL assembled one of the world's largest digital research libraries. CDL facilitates the licensing of online materials and develops shared services used throughout the UC system. Building on the foundations of the Melvyl Catalog, CDL has developed one of the largest online library catalogs in the country and works in partnership with the UC campuses to bring the treasures of California's libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations to the world. CDL continues to explore how services such as digital curation, scholarly publishing, archiving and preservation support research throughout the information lifecycle.

The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) of the United States was an archival program led by the Library of Congress to archive and provide access to digital resources. The program convened several working groups, administered grant projects, and disseminated information about digital preservation issues. The U.S. Congress established the program in 2000, and official activity specific to NDIIPP itself wound down between 2016 and 2018. The Library was chosen because of its role as one of the leading providers of high-quality content on the Internet. The Library of Congress has formed a national network of partners dedicated to preserving specific types of digital content that is at risk of loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Shumelda Okerson</span> American librarian

Ann Shumelda Okerson is an American librarian and expert on the licensing of electronic resources and the place of digital technologies in academic and research libraries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic Information for Libraries</span> Nonprofit organization founded in 1999

Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) works with libraries worldwide to enable access to digital information for people in developing and transition countries. They are an international not-for-profit organisation based in Vilnius with a global network of partners.

The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) is a representative leadership body for university libraries in Australia. The CAUL members represent 39 Australian University Institutions and 8 New Zealand University Institutions. Membership is restricted to library directors whose parent institutions are full members of Universities Australia.

The TexShare program is a statewide resource-sharing consortium of hundreds of member libraries in Texas, United States administered by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC). The TexShare program maximizes the effectiveness of library expenditures by enabling member libraries to share staff expertise, share materials electronic and print formats, pursue joint purchasing agreements on electronic databases, and encourage the cooperative development of Texas libraries statewide. TexShare is made up of Texas academic libraries, public libraries, and libraries of clinical medicine. TexShare is a member driven consortium that exists with the support and cooperation of Texas member libraries.

The Center for Research Libraries is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries, based on a buy-in concept for membership of the consortia. The consortium acquires and preserves traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. It also gathers and analyzes data pertaining to the preservation of physical and digital resources, and fosters the sharing of expertise, in order to assist member libraries in maintaining their collections.

A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are academic, public, school or special libraries, and/or information centers. Library consortia have been created to service specific regions or geographic areas, e.g., local, state, regional, national or international. Many libraries commonly belong to multiple consortia. The goal of a library consortium is to amplify the capabilities and effectiveness of its member libraries through collective action, including, but not limited to, print or electronic resource sharing, reducing costs through group purchases of resources, and hosting professional development opportunities. The “bedrock principle upon which consortia operate is that libraries can accomplish more together than alone.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CLARIN</span>

Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure is a European Research Infrastructure Consortium founded in 2012. It comprises national consortia in and outside the European Union, consisting of institutes such as universities, research centres, libraries and public archives. The goal of the consortium is providing access to digital language data collections, to digital tools, and training material for researchers to work with the language resources.

The Lebanese Academic Library Consortium (LALC) was created in 2002. It started with five members, and has grown to nine Lebanese academic institutions by 2011. LALC's mission is “to cooperate in the selection, pricing negotiations, and access methods of electronic resources” for the best interests of the universities and their library users. An example of a resource that all members of the LALC can access is Elsevier's ScienceDirect database, which the LALC signed an agreement with in 2002. It is the first ever library consortium to be established in Lebanon. LALC is part of a larger group of libraries called the International Coalition of Library Consortia.

Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois is an academic consortium of public and private university and research libraries in the state of Illinois.

The Consorzio Interuniversitario Lombardo per l'Elaborazione Automatica (CILEA) was a consortium of universities in Italy. Founded in 1974, it operated from headquarters in Milan. In July 2013 CILEA merged into the CINECA academic consortium.

The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is a library consortium based in the Boston area with 26 member institutions across New England.

South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC) is a non-profit consortium of member institutions aimed at negotiating the procurement of, and securing access to information resources on behalf of its members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collective collection</span> Form of collaboration between libraries

A collective collection, shared collection, collaborative collection, or shared print program is a joint effort by multiple academic or research libraries to house, manage, and provide access to their collective physical collections. Most shared print programs focus on collections of monographs and/or serials. Similar efforts have addressed acquisition and/or retention of microform, federal government documents, and digital collections. Shared print programs often have activities in common with national repositories and archiving programs. Discussions surrounding shared print programs in their current form have come to the forefront as a popular solution to shrinking collection budgets, rising costs of resources, and competing space needs.

References

  1. ↑ See: U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Sect. 54.500. "FCC 54.500". Hallikainen. October 1, 2011. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Participating Consortia | ICOLC Website". icolc.net. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  3. ↑ See: "Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortial Licenses".
  4. ↑ "Revised Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortial Licenses"..
  5. ↑ Perry, Katherine, "Where are library consortia going? Results of a 2009 survey," Serials: http://uksg.metapress.com/content/ujht042258673441/fulltext.html. See also: Weber, D C, "A Century of Cooperative Programs among Academic Libraries," College & Research Libraries, May 1976, 38(206), 205–221; and Alexander, A W, "Toward ‘The Perfection of Work:' Library Consortia in the Digital Age," Journal of Library Administration, 1999, 28(2), 1–14.
  6. ↑ "TRLN Bibliography". Triangle Research Libraries Network. Archived from the original on 2013-03-06. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
  7. ↑ RLG's founding history, through its merger with OCLC, is available at: http://www.oclc.org/research/partnership/history.html.
  8. ↑ Perry, Katherine, "VIVA’s Approach to Library Collection and Access Issues," presented at the Society for Scholarly Publishing, Baltimore, Md, June 1, 2000, and Perry, Katherine, "Why Library Consortia matter; The VIVA Experience," presented at The Congress of Academic Library Directors of Maryland Annual Meeting, April 27, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Homepage". International Coalition of Library consortia. Retrieved April 10, 2022.
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