[Ncsi-net] NCSI-NET meeting on 4th March 2006.

[Babu Rajendra]

Dear Professionals,

We are happy to announce this month's NCSI-NET meeting to be held on
Saturday 4th March 2006 at  seminar hall, NCSI, IISc, Bangalore-12 from
11.00 am onwards. Mr. I R N Goudar would be delivering the lecture on
Library Consortia Initiatives in India: Best Practices and Issues.

====================
TITLE: Library Consortia Initiatives in India: Best Practices and
Issues.
By Mr. I R N Goudar, Head, Information Centre for Aerospace Science and
Technology , NAL, Bangalore. 

ABSTRACT:

The old concept 'consortia' means a strategic alliance of institutions
having common interests. The applications of  IT and IR systems for
on-line catalogues, bibliographic databases and full text electronic
documents have facilitated quick information exchange.  The advent of
e-publishing has brought a revolution in journal publication,
subscription, access and delivery mechanism.  Print subscriptions still
continue to dominate publisher's revenue. While dwindling library
budgets and growing number of journals force libraries to form consortia
for accessing e-journals, other role players like primary publishers,
aggregators, vendors, subscription agents and document delivery agencies
have their own reasons to encourage consortia movement.  The early
'subscription clubs', the so called consortia leaders have developed and
adopted consortia strategies like mission, vision, goals, planning,
structure, membership, management and standards suitable for different
models.  However, there are no universally acceptable e-journals pricing
and licensing models. Same thing holds good for other kind of documents
like books, technical reports, etc.

Major concerns of consortia formation include  funding, pricing,
personnel, training, service, archiving, technology and  copyright
issues. 

The pricing factors include number of nodes, multiple campuses, access
mode, training and perpetual access.  Consortia models  could be
participants oriented or purpose oriented and homogeneous or
heterogeneous.

Many libraries especially in developing countries are not geared up for
accessing e-Journals due to various reasons including user ignorance,
infrastructure and funds.  While there is an urgent need for changing
the mindset of librarians, users and the administrators for subscribing
to e-journals in India, a satisfying note is that few forward looking
libraries have made a modest beginning in forming consortia.  Some
initiatives include - Indian Institutes of Management for accessing
bibliographic databases, CSIR Laboratories for >3200 journals from 10
major publishers, FORSA for accessing Astronomy and Astrophysics
journals, Hyderabad Knowledge Park members for J-Gate, INFLIBNET
initiative for providing access to 100 universities for full text
journals of Some ACS, RSC, IOP, and bibliographic databases, INDEST for
a host of full text sources like  ScienceDirect , IEL Online and  few
bibliographic databases for the benefit IITs,  IISc, IIMs and
engineering college and GE Global Research initiative  for the benefit
of different GE Centres world over.  Some of the pricing and payment
constraints specific to Indian libraries include -  inadequate funds,
single point payment, rigid administrative, financial and auditing
rules, problems of defining asset against payment and pay-per-view not
yet acceptable. Consortia approach is the only way to satisfy increasing
information requirements of vast number of Indian academic and R& D
community.

============================

Please confirm your participation to either me or
Prasanna(t.s.prasanna at intel.com)

Warm Regards,
NCSI-NET coordinators.
================



H Rajendra Babu
Financial Research Analyst
Capco.
Salarpuria Annexe,
351/5 - 10 Luskar, Hosur Road,
Bangalore- 560 034
T-+91-80-51997351
http://www.capcoinstitute.com/
Capco Institute is the research arm of Capco
Capco is the first services and technology solutions provider
exclusively focused on forming the future of the financial markets. We
unite thought leadership and practical application to improve
profitability for our clients.


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