University Libraries in India and Electronic Journals: The Role of Consortia-based Subscription of E-journals for the Effective Use of Financial Resources

Abstract

Higher education for the development of society is imperative because it not only emphasize on the need of creating the enlightened citizenry for the country but also establishes itself as a potential instrument of social and national reconstruction. Libraries function as an essential integral component in higher education system. Without a proper information and knowledge infrastructure, no education system can sustain and achieve its laid down goals and objectives. But in the past one-decade, due to paucity of funds, libraries are passing through a phase of deterioration, particularly in terms of its collection and services. Lot of efforts have been taken in past to over come the problem of financial crunch such as resource sharing, library networking etc. Advent of information and communication technologies and their capabilities such as high-resolution capture devices, dramatic increase of digital storage media, explosive growth of Internet and WWW, sophisticated search engines, fast-processing power and reducing cost of computers, high bandwidth networks and increasing number of electronic publications have made possible to switch over to technological solutions to the problems of present day university libraries which can not be won otherwise by the traditional system of librarianship. The present paper defines the term e-journals, illustrates the advantages of e-journals in the light of the financial problems, issues and implications, some acquisition considerations of e-journals and highlights the benefits of consortia based subscription of electronic resources.