Development of Consortial Approach and Resource Sharing in Higher Education Lirbaries With Special Reference to India

Abstract

This paper mainly traces the historical development of consortia based library services. States that the consortial approach in the form of cooperation was initiated by Melvil Dewey in 1880s. Main factors behind such cooperation are outlined. States that like any other form of library services consortia were also first came into existence in the United States where by the year 1970 more then 125 academic library consortia were functional. Finds that now the trend has changed and consortia are coming up in developing countries also mainly for the acquisition of electronic resources. Briefly touches the history of consortial development in India where it had not been very successful mainly due to human reasons. Describes in details the two recently formed consortia in India i.e. INDEST and E-journal Consortium of UGC Infonet. Describes the pros and cons of the present model of subscription to full set of journals of publishers in the form of so called “Big Deals” and advises that these big deals may not be really big in many cases. Outlines some of the guidelines for the librarians in these conditions. Concludes that the consortia in the country should work in close cooperation and not in competition to each other.