More than ten years experiences about consortia in Finland Informatio Medicata 2009 Budapest 17. – Pirjo Rajakiili National Library of Health Sciences - Terkko

Contents FinELib, the Finnish National consortium Organization Funding Resources Impact of FinELib Conclusion and challenges

FinELib (1) The National Electronic Library Programme, FinELib, is launched by Ministry of Education in 1997 Intended to support higher education, learning and research in Finland Started in accordance with the government’s information society programme

FinELib (2) The basic goals of FinELib: - to increase the quality of electronic information - to improve information retrieval from Internet - to develop a graphical user interface to give access to heterogenous information resources

FinELib (3) During activities were carried out as a project Since the year 2000 FinELib has been a permanent part of the National Library of Finland Principles guiding the activities cover: - licensing policy - share of central funding - selection of resources to be licensed - development activities - cooperation with library network

Organisation (1) The national FinELib Consortium consists of 107 members: - all universities (21) - polytechnics (27) - research institutes (39) - public libraries (20)

Organisation (2) FinELib service agreement covers two main services: 1) licensing of e-resources 2) maintenance of the national portal Responsibilities of the National Library and the costumer defined in agreement

Organisation (3) FinELib is part of the services of the National Library of Finland for the Finnish library network. The organisationin FinELib ensures that all interest groups are represented in the decision- making process and development of the services through three different groups: 1) Steering Group 2) Consortium Group 3) Subject-specific expert groups

Organisation (4) 1)Steering group is responsible for policy making and evaluating annually the results and economy 2)Consortium group makes proposals for the National Library and the Steering group 3)Subject-specific expert groups make prioritised proposals for new acquisitions for the National Library

Organisation (5) There are 8 subject-specific expert groups: culture economics engineering health sciences humanities natural sciences social sciences public libraries

Funding (1) Based on centralized funding from the Ministry of Education and separate funding from the consortium member organizations During the first years of operation government funding only for the universities Today also polytechnics and public libraries receive government funding

Funding (2) Total expenses of FinELib in 2008 were about 16,5 million euros - including also additional costs like staff and staff development and both central funding and organisations’ own funding: - e-resources eur (94,1%) - staff eur (4,2%) - IT, support eur (1,3%) - other (training..) eur (0,4%) eur (100,0%)

Funding (3) Total expenses of e-resources by customer sectors in 2009: self-financing shares Universities eur (77,2%) Polytechnics eur (67,0%) Res. Institutes eur (100%) Public libraries eur (100%) eur (79,7%)% In 2008 the customer organisations’ self-financing share for the use of e-resources was 79,7% = eur

Resources (1) Resources and their use in and in 2008 In In 2008 E-journals Databases Article downloads ,9 million Searches made 4 million 43,1 million E-books Handbooks 319 Staff number 2 14

Resources (2) The use of e-journals has increased constantly, for example in 2008 the use increased 37% compared to the year 2007 In 2008 there were 10,9 million article downloads, 2,6 million more than in 2007 Thanks to the increase in user numbers, the price of article downloads has dropped for many resources In 2008 university libraries used on e-resources 18,2 million euros including all funding sources and on printed resources 10,1 million euros.

Resources (3) Higher spending on e-resources is linked to more use FinELib acquires the greater part of the e- resources of the Finnish libraries. The repertoire of e-resources includes thousands of e-journals and e-books and several hundred databases. The number of Finnish material in FinELib is 23 resources – the demand has been increasing MEDIC database, the Finnish medical database, produced by my library, National Library of Health Sciences, has been included in FinELib since the year 2006

Impact of FinELib FinELib user survey in 2007 indicated, that the use of e-resources has significant effect on the work of researches: - Helped in locating resources 70% - Helped in accessing ” 75% - Broadened the supply of ” 52% - Helped in following up one’s field 43% - Raised the quality of work 31% - Saved time 49%

Impact of FinELib (2) The number of e-resources is increasing Offers user statistics 24-hours access to e-resources, even from home, is important Centralized acquisition saves a lot of time in libraries Acquiring material for a large consortium means more reasonable prices than if a single organisation acquires the material on its own

Conclusion and challenges (1) FinELib has worked well and we have gained a lot The FinELib staff is competent and comprises of specialists in librarianship, law, procurement, finance, information technology and public relations. This year FinELib will negotiate on behalf of its member organisations agreements concerning about 80 different e-resources In 2008 FinELib was recognised as one of the 24 components of the national research infrastructure

Conclusion and challenges (2) FinELib trainings are very much appreciated by information specialists in the consortium member libraries. In 2008 FinELib organised 35 training sessions with 517 participants from the libraries In 2009 the greatest challenges will be presented by changes in the operating environment, which will be manifested primarily in the form of structural changes in the universities, such as mergers Also mergers between research institutes are taking place

Conclusion and challenges (3) The most dramatic change has taken place in the number of member municipalities. Between 2008 and 2009 the number of municipalities decreased from 415 to 348 Universities have expressed a wish for increased tailoring in the acquision of materials One of the central aims for the operation of FinELib is to support the changing operating environment through flexible licensing and service solutions

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