Evolution of Mutual Efforts in Libraries:The Consortia Boom

Abstract

Library cooperation has been experienced by librarians for long. Indeed mutual efforts were viewed as essential by the early leaders of modern librarianship. This paper reviews the progressive development of library cooperation, and draws attention to the mutual-efforts done in libraries during sixteenth century and beyond. Thus gradual development of strategic alliances between the libraries has been discussed, and success stories are noted emphasizing on the initiatives in India. It also provides a brief historical sketch of library consortia, which was evident in the 1930s. The paper recognizes the importance of electronic consortium and their growth in the present century. Consortia are being treated as means for libraries to survive. Finally, as technological advancements have been alleviating many ills of information sharing activities; therefore, the spirits of cooperation are reinforced and mode of cooperation has undergone transformation and consortia boom is prevalent across the globe.

Proposing a Library Consortium Model for National Development in Zimbabwe

“…Academic libraries have over decades developed important areas for cooperation, including shared cataloging, inter-library loan and document delivery, off-site shelving facilities, joint or inclusive licensing of electronic content, and future cost containment (Neal, 2012). Pal (2016) acknowledges the existence of a wide variety of library consortia organized along many different lines with plenty of models that afford opportunity libraries to cooperate and collaborate for enhanced access to information. Models are designed to support national development about higher education, research and development and democratic participation of citizens in national development programs.…”

Library as a consortium perspective: A systematic literature review

“…Organizations’ access to shared resources is nothing new in libraries. The first records of formal cooperation between libraries date back to the 19th century, with the creation of the American Library Association (ALA) (Nesta, 2019; Pal, 2016), highlighting cooperation in services (Chauhan et al, 2011). Ideas about cooperation began with the publication of book reports to disseminate collections and progressed to the share of books between libraries, this being reinforced with the creation in 1927 of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA, currently the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions).…”

“…The 1960s marked the share of services and material, through shared cataloguing (physical description of libraries’ information material) and the development of standards allowing the exchange of records among libraries, avoiding duplicated efforts to describe the same item – above all a reflection of the development of ICT (Nesta, 2019; Tripathi and Lal, 2016). It was in that period that the term ‘library consortium’ began to be used, and this has sometimes been applied with the suggestion of cooperation, collaboration and coordination among libraries aiming to share information resources (Pal, 2016).…”