Organizing models of library consortia: forming sustainable participation among potential partners in India

Abstract

Libraries are constantly grappling with ever-escalating cost of scholarly resources. Price escalation in e-resource subscriptions coupled with budgetary constraints has serious impact on libraries across the globe. This paper critically examines the prevalent situations that have been leading to resource sharing; primarily emanated from library cooperatives, interlibrary loan, buying clubs; subsequently changed to utility services, site licensing, and ultimately the <i>Consortium</i> – an emerging toolkit for libraries to survive. The strategic alliances amongst libraries and growth of library consortia have been discussed. The implications of different consortia models to the Indian libraries are explained; which suggests for a sustainable consortia organization among potential partners. The paper also attempts to provide an insight into how consortia strategies can overcome an unending fiscal constraint, and to sustain the buying power in collection development for better access to greater resources.