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Grażyna Piotrowicz
The university libraries consortia - yesterday, today and tomorrow
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The University Library of Wrocław
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This article was translated thanks to the grant received from the Open Society Institute
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The university research libraries development process has produced a
certain phenomenon that of a departure from an organisational
independence toward creating tight and formalised co-operation with
other libraries. The last decade produced many library consortia, and
their number has been steadily increasing.
1. Consortia - a historical outline
A close co-operation of libraries (especially university libraries)
within the consortia framework is not entirely a new idea. According to
the sources, in the years 1931-1971, in the U.S., there were 125 library
consortia, of which 115 (almost 90%), emerged after 1960. These
consortia's formation is closely related to the emergence of academic
consortia (a phenomenon typical to the 60-ties) and the intensive
development of automation processes at libraries, as well as the
increase of computer use in library research. According to Ruth
Patrick's report, there were four distinguishable sub-groups in the
group of 125 consortia.
- big consortia focusing mainly on introducing and implementation of
new computer technologies;
- small consortia focusing on user service and
regular library activities;
- consortia developing co-operation within the scope of a single
science field;
- consortia focusing on inter-library co-operation (lending) and
network customer service operations.
Those consortia's main activities consisted, first and foremost, of
acquisitions (58%), resource sharing (30%), as well as cost reduction
(13%), and other goals (14%).
In the years 1970-80, the number of new consortia steadily grew leading
to the formation of consortia groups the long-term agenda for this
process was to satisfy a variety of particular requirements.
The development process of the so-called megaconsortia took place,
better known as bibliographical services (or library networks). So did
the development and implementation of local integrated library systems.
Although these two phenomena contributed to the development of
consortia, the latter, nonetheless, diverted libraries attention from
consortia-related activities, especially when both processes were being
implemented.
Well known megaconsortia in the U.S., among others, are: the Ohio
College Library Centre (OCLS), Research Library Group (RLG), and
Washington Library Network (WLN). The activities and accomplishments of
these groups in the field of bibliography surpassed their original
goals. Along with the expansion of megaconsortia's range of services,
the inter-library co-operation started to subside.
In the late 70-ties and 80-ties, the majority of U.S. libraries had
already implemented local library systems, thereby focusing on own
institutions activities. The introduction of CD-ROMs (installed on
local networks) diverted libraries attention from megaconsortia, and
created a short-lived illusion of independence in the area of client
services. A passing loss of interest in the formation of consortia resulted.
2. Contemporary library consortia
Late 80-ies and early 90-ies saw the emergence of new consortia
developed as strategic partnerships, with goals different from those of
library networks of the past. (Library networks had followed the model
of multi-station networks of the 70-ties that, beside other
bibliographical services, transmitted OCLS messages). The consortia,
however, decidedly protected interests of their members, despite other
organisations efforts towards new self-definition. As much as the
earlier networks were created according to geographical principles
(particular geographical areas were considered), the consortia's
structure reached beyond. The purpose of consortia's activities was to
meet the needs of libraries of various profiles (for example: art
schools small libraries or large specialised libraries) and their
particular requirements.
2.1 New consortia their origins
Certain phenomena of the early 90-ies prompted individual libraries
toward increased mutual co-operation and formation of new types of
library consortia.
Here is a short characteristic of these four phenomena:
2.1.1 The development of telematics
A dramatic development of telecommunication and information technologies
of the 90-ies, especially the great popularity of World Wide Web,
significantly contributed to the dynamic implementation of the latest
technological solutions in library information processes, and brought
about large, almost revolutionary changes at libraries.
The emergence of modern information technologies forced libraries to
look for new methods of servicing their clientele; especially, to grant
the new users access not only to own resources and services, but also to
outside (virtual) sources of information.
A new process has begun the process of library transformation that
makes libraries more access-oriented, as opposed to
content-oriented . This process requires organisational
changes within the libraries, as well as constant improvement of
professional qualifications of the personnel.
The telematic revolution based on the convergence of the
telecommunication infrastructure, computer and audio-visual technologies
opened new, previously inaccessible, avenues for information exchange
and distribution. This created easy access for libraries and their
users to the network resources practically around the clock.
2.1.2 Changes in access to information
Despite an unusually intensive development of the World Wide Web in the
beginning of the 90-ies, one needs to state that this easily accessible,
free of charge information available on the www.pages is of a secondary
importance to the users from the scientific point of view.
The basic (source) information can be found in databases and scientific
publications, and the access to those has always been expensive.
That is why, when faced with increased costs of traditional
forms and sources of information (scientific publications, periodical
printed and electronic, and databases), the libraries started turning
toward electronic resources which, thanks to vast possibilities of an
already existing telematic infrastructure, can be used to the
most of their potential.
The publishers, however, (of electronic periodicals in
particular) contributed to the problem of pricing by merging the cost of
electronic information with the cost of its printed version. In the
recent years, the publishing industry has undergone some changes that
incorporated the all-encompassing Web expansion and dispersion of
electronic resources, as well as publishers attempts at altering the
copyright and intellectual property regulations within the electronic
environment.
The consortia took notice of their potential, started negotiating prices
and putting forward innovative solutions potentially beneficial for
libraries.
2.1.3 Economic competition and local politics
For a while now, libraries have been under increasing pressure both from
the educational sector, and the requirements of the
licensing field. These two factors forced various
academic institutions into competition, especially regarding
cost-effectiveness and cost reduction. Also, slowly but surely, state
donations for universities have decreased. For example, in the
U.S., the state universities have been receiving reduced funding, while
private academic institutions have had to apply a cap to their tuition
fees. Students rights to free education in England and Austria have
recently been under attack. The situation of Polish
students and universities is very much alike. These phenomena have been
causing increasing competition of funded institutions and, consequently,
the collapse and disintegration of library funding, and significant
reduction of their budgets with simultaneous increase of the number of
students. The economic pressure caused individual libraries to maximise
the use of their financial resources -and creation of library consortia
undoubtedly seems to be at least a partial remedy.
2.1.4 Quality improvement
In the beginning of the 90-ies, the pressure on the customer service
quality improvement started to increase. Within the scope of this
process a cost reduction of the single operation was called for.
The libraries, in order to maintain high professional standard of
customer service and expand the range of proposed services, directed
their attention to electronic information resources, which,
however costly, could be used more optimally.
At the same time, university libraries, in keeping with the idea of
supporting research and educational processes, started
implementing structural and organisational changes and took initiatives
toward developing self-education and improvement of professional
qualifications of own personnel. These libraries saw a chance for a
dynamic development through partnership agreements, formation of
consortia and creation of an organised network of institutions with
common access to valuable information resources.
Consortia were to be the required forum for libraries activities
related to sharing information about library procedures and cost
reduction within the field of customer service.
2.2 Library co-operation goals
The goals set out by libraries in the last decade can be classified in
three major groups.
These are:
- the initiative to enrich the library's resources through
sharing existing content with the help of virtual catalogues or document
delivery services directly available to members via library
membership holdings;
- the tendency to reduce operation costs for participating libraries
(it often happens that a consortium acts as an agent for participating
libraries and seeks and obtains wholesale prices while
purchasing information in the form of databases or electronic
periodicals);
- the perspective of influencing the shape and form of information
processing and distribution in the future. Consortia not only seek
opportunities of influencing various national and international
agendas responsible for publishing policies and copyright, but also want
to influence information providers (especially commercial publishers),
so they lower the cost of information access.
However, the possibilities of implementation of these goals largely
depend on the organisational structure of consortia, their management
and budgets.
2.3. Types of consortia
Despite the fact that consortia are usually formed in order to reduce
costs, (the cost of access to information resources, for example), they
are not merely loosely connected buying clubs . The most successful
consortia develop as institutionalised strategic alliances whose level
of sharing resources highly benefits the members.
As the model for a modern consortium does not exist, the types of
consortia run a whole gamut - from tight, highly centralised structures
(e.g. an organisation encompassing a particular
geographical and administrative region), to loosely organised library
network of various profiles. Each model has its strengths, goals and
has to function in its respective political reality. There are many
hybrids based on the above-mentioned four models, and the consortia can
evolve from one model to another.
The level of consortia centralisation is the main factor influencing
mutual relations of participating institutions (members), as well as
their relations with outside organisations (contractors, vendors,
publishers). One acts on a general principle that the larger the degree
of de-centralisation of a consortium, the more autonomous its members
are. Conversely, the amount of autonomy each member possesses
influences the consortium's capability of reaching its goals.
Usually, highly centralised consortia are managed by
goal-oriented personnel capable of handling a whole
range of duties, and act according to specialised agendas geared
at obtaining funding. Once the funding has been obtained, the consortia
start attracting the attention of suppliers and vendors, who always
prefer to conduct business with centrally managed, financially solvent
institutions.
While forming consortia, it is advisable to opt for a partially
centralised structure, represented by a member of the alliance,
responsible for negotiating prices, licensing agreements and conducting
transactions on behalf of the whole organisation. It is a fact, that
database administrators and owners and publishers of electronic
material prefer to deal with a consortium representative,
rather than with each member individually.
2.4 Consortia mergers
The field of information management is regularly being affected by
rapidly changing environment. Therefore, libraries have caught on to
the idea of dealing with these changes more effectively through the
formation of groups of consortia. That is how forums for the exchange
of ideas and strategies are being created and member services
co-ordinated. Consortia groups, in the recent years, have been joining
forces in order to make better use of information resources and promote
consortia interests on a larger scale. The main philosophy
behind the formation of consortia groups is to create a strong lobby,
capable of influencing the market, and not to limit the competition or
dictate the prices. The newly emerging consortia groups have been
steadily gaining the support of publishers and vendors.
The Consortium of Consortia was established in 1996 and the creation of
the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) followed in
1997. These two institutions have initiated regular meetings and
conferences for library consortia, for the purpose of exchange of ideas
and expertise, setting new goals and definition of direction for future
activities.
At present, ICOLC has over 100 library consortia in its body - from
North America, Australia, Israel, China, South Africa, and deals mostly
with problems of university library consortia.
ICLS has been organising informative sessions and seminars on the subject of
new electronic information resources, prices applied by vendors and
suppliers and other pertinent issues. The coalition initiates meetings
with the information suppliers and creates discussion forums for
the exchange of ideas regarding new products.
3. The future of consortia
In the face of a visibly successful co-operation within the framework of
library consortia and greatly improved situation of libraries one
should expect their further dynamic development. The consortia's future
prospective activities are as follows:
A) Shaping of prices standards for delivery and distribution of
electronic information
Faced with increased expectations of users toward libraries operating on
reduced budgets, the consortia must somehow assist libraries and other
information providers in the efforts to meet the public's expectations.
At the same time, the consortia are forced to constantly invent new and
improved methods of information delivery and contents.
As many information providers, in order to increase profit, resort to
altering well-established principles of electronic information
access by acquiring new user environments, the consortia feel
compelled to counteract.
The publishers, too, are very often guilty of setting improper pricing
standards. Libraries, quite simply, cannot afford a long-term
engagement in the existing pricing standards for electronic material
(the price includes charges of current printed version combined with
surcharges for electronic version and projected inflation interest).
In order to be able to use information in the electronic version, the
libraries will have to reduce the cost of single information
item. It is up to the consortia to encourage publishers to provide more
flexible economical standards for purchases of information, as well as
to research new ways of separating the actual cost of an electronic
information from printed versions subscription.
It seems only justified that certain structural changes be introduced
into the academics communication processes. The system of
awards greatly promotes increase of the number of scientific
publications, however, commercial publishers also increase the cost of
these publications, thereby rendering them inaccessible to their
principal clients the libraries.
The library consortia's role in the dialogue on the subject of cost
reduction can therefore be crucial.
There is a great need for setting the standards of the actual
validity of publications. Libraries nowadays cannot afford
purchases and distribution of useless information. That is why the
consortia must co-operate with libraries-members and publishers in order
to develop proper standards, and gather only valuable data.
B) The negotiation of license agreements
The negotiating of licensing agreements seems to be some consortia's top
priority. One should remember however that such negotiations have to be
backed up by adequate storage (in archives) of electronic information.
The libraries require constant and uninterrupted access to the archived
resources - especially when electronic data is concerned.
Commercial publishers, however, seem to be completely unwilling to
honour this requirement, and their pricing practices, based on
granting licenses rather than on selling information, further
exacerbates the problem.
It is evident that consortia should not only negotiate the issue of
archives as part of a license, but also co-operate with each other with
regard to facilitation of storing of information. The agreements with
vendors should contain exclusivity clauses referring to total ownership
of a license, rather than its lease.
There has to be unlimited access to information. The
consortia will keep using its consumer power and influence in order to
eliminate restrictions of excessive limitations on individual
authorisation of access to information.
C) The implementation of new technologies
All consortia regardless of whether they exercise mutual access to
integrated library systems, electronic information sources or work out a
compatibility of various information systems face significant changes
in the technological infrastructure.
For example: to increase the volume of distribution services based on
the Internet requires the increase of duties related to the network
maintenance and its preparation for the intensive use.
The issues related to security, identification and authorisation are
also a problem. Nowadays, the systems using IP addresses for the
purposes of validation are no longer sufficient, as library users use
different Internet providers.
One should expect that consortia should play a very important role in
the implementation of new technologies in order to improve the quality
of services of participating libraries. Some of the projected
strategies include improvement of the functionality of the on-line
systems, text-image project conversion co-ordination, the facilitation
of integration of fundamentally different systems (i.e. OPAC, databases,
full-texts).
D) Co-ordination of projects related to common usage of resources
Larger or centralised consortia often integrate common systems with the
central catalogue, smaller or de-centralised ones are more and more
interested in virtual central catalogues based on Z39.50 protocol.
Other activities regarding common use of resources comprise:
co-operational development of traditional and digital resources, mutual
privileges of lending for the users of all participating
libraries, common cataloguing and delivery of data and documents requested
by the user.
Such activities allow the participating libraries to expand the range of
their services and resources.
The consortia, in order to extend the area of resource sharing are
getting more interested in the introduction of a special type of
membership. They also work out collective purchase agreements for
traditional publishing houses. Some consortia expect the periodicals
publishers to offer them combined
contracts offering reduced servicing costs others to implement group
plans that not only effectively reduce costs, but also allow to help out
other consortia.
E) The improvement of information infrastructure
The information content is generated by many different and dispersed
sources. Library users gain access to information through many servers,
which, very often, do not have direct links (hyperlinks) to newspaper
electronic resources. The publishers of electronic publications are
confident that there is a huge market for newspaper content sales as a
separate product. That is why the consortia face the dilemma of
delivering the mechanism that would provide access to both the
electronic publication and its content. Large, centralised consortia
act as intermediaries in the trade of publications (so called
aggregators ), while smaller and de-centralised groups seek out
commercial offers of such aggregators. It is not known which model
would be more successful. It is clear, however, that consortia will
attempt integration of new electronic sources with traditional
bibliographical systems and, at the moment, await the right moment to
assume the role of main players in this process.
F) Financing and management problems
The policy regarding consortia in the U.S. states that there is a
requirement for the financial base for the consortia. The majority
of consortia maintain offices with at least one member of
personnel responsible for co-ordination, organisation and management.
In general, the consortia's activity is based on the efforts of
participating libraries focused on establishing financial
liquidity through fundraising and membership fees. One
should expect that similar issues would become of interest to consortia
groups interested in search for methods of implementation of proper
financing procedures and good management.
4. Local (national) experience
Library partnerships within the scope of mutual agreements,
associations or consortia have recently gained ground in Poland. Such
initiatives have been kick-started by libraries members of already
existing, more or less formal associations that are in the process of
implementation of uniform, integrated library systems. This is how big
library consortia have been created VTLS (Gdańsk, Cracow, Warsaw,
Lublin, Wrocław), TINLIB (Cracow, Kielce, Bydgoszcz, Warsaw), PROLIB
(Higher Silesia), HORIZON (Poznań, Łódź, Toruń), ALEPH (Warsaw,
Szczecin, Białystok, Olsztyn, Kielce, Katowice, Wrocław). These
consortia's activity is marked by many interesting initiatives, for
example: libraries that use VTLS software, within the scope of their
co-operation, created a file of standards offering entries ready-made
for duplication. They also created a central catalogue of
periodicals (Centralny Katalog Czasopism), established (in 1993) the National
Universal Catalogue of Polish Scientific Libraries (NUKat) used by
libraries working with VTLS, Aleph, Horizon, Prolib systems (27
libraries in total).
Since 2001, 58 Polish scientific libraries have collaborated on the
creation of KARO the Distributed Catalogue of Polish Libraries. These libraries
have been using the university server of the Nicolaus Copernicus University
in Toruń and employing the following integrated library systems:
Horizon, Aleph, VTLS and INNOPAC. These systems on-line catalogues can
be simultaneously searched with the use of the Z2Web interface and
Z39.50 protocol.
With time, the libraries (those of the universities, especially) facing
financial difficulties have started a strategic partnership, in order to
provide their users with steady access to recognised sources of
scientific information world-wide, especially databases and electronic
newspapers.
Some examples of well-organised structures with common access to
databases are as follows:
Konsorcjum Bibliotek Górnośląskich (the Library Consortium of Higher Silesia) created in 1995, the network service provided to various scientific centres using the server of an Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling (ICM) of the University of Warsaw, the network service provided to Poznan scientific environment -off
the server of the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (started in 1997), CDROMWAM consortium associating eight libraries in Bydgoszcz, Cracow and
Warsaw, Środowiskowy System Udostępniania Baz Danych (the System of Database Distribution in Wrocław) created in 1999 and serving five Wrocław universities accessing databases gathered on theserver of the Wrocław University of Technology, the National Consortium-Chemical Abstracts which allows 18 scientific
institutions the use of Chemical Abstracts database.
Naturally, university libraries are very much interested in
getting access to electronic publications. That is why, they enter into
co-operation and agreements with distributors, suppliers or publishers
who provide them access to electronic resources on various levels
lists of contents, abstracts, features or full texts. Some suppliers
offer such services as the provision of electronic
publications, without the necessity of negotiating with
particular publishers. This service also includes professionally run
administrative services, additional offers, title information, required
software, etc. These types of consortia function in Poland as well,
e.g., EBSCO, Elservier, Academic Press, SwetsNet, Springer and others).
The main characteristic of initial stages of the majority of library
strategic partnerships in Poland is search for a sponsor or an outside
donor. This phenomenon seems to be quite typical, as a given consortium
can reach required financial stability only after its libraries had been
provided with adequate funding. Provided this condition has been
fulfilled, the consortium's goals (most often purchase of equipment,
the fees incurred by access to information resources) can be
accomplished.
Such was the experience of the libraries that were implementing
library-integrated systems (the Mellon Foundation), libraries being part
of NUKat (Mellon Foundation, KBN), commonly using databases (KBN), or
electronic publications (KBN, OSI).
Recently, there have been some exceptions to the rule - provided that
members of the consortium are aware of the pertinence of valuable
information source, and can afford it (e.g. one particular database)
then, they make a purchase. The example of such undertaking can be the
purchase of Inspec database in 1999, as well as the purchase of Current
Contents in 2000; these, however, were minor purchases and required
lesser financial resources.
5. Final remarks
Depending on the point of view the success of library consortia can be
defined either as tremendous, or alarming, or both.
For the vendors the consortia can be just a medium for the
introduction of new products to previously unknown territory (market),
or a threat to the profit margin. The consortia can either simplify or
complicate communication, negotiations, licensing agreements.
For the libraries the consortia can provide expertise, access to new
electronic or printed resources, they further professional development
and secure new funds. They can, however, also threaten local authority,
slow down decision-making processes, take over personnel's time and
complicate management and inter-organisational relations.
Being part of well-run and properly functioning consortium can make any
library extremely successful, however, if the opposite were the case
it can be of fatal consequences.
Having thoroughly analysed the processes of the creation and development
of consortia, one can easily state that their increased activity is
always accompanied by intensive development of advanced technologies.
The newest solutions within the field of telematics implemented at
libraries allow for the development of their co-operation on a large
scale.
One should, therefore, assume that in the near future, the library
consortia would continue to develop and act as wholesale buyers of
electronic information, and steadily improve the use of information
resources.
Most probably, the consortia's influence will grow, along with their
efforts to implement good management and secure financial stability
within their bodies.
Undoubtedly, the changes in the computer and publishing industry will
have the biggest impact on the consortia's function.
The consortia, slowly but surely, will become the super-libraries of the
future, capable of creating systems and services superior in many ways
to those of individual libraries.
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Translated by Dorota Jaglarz
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