MANAGING AN ONLINE ELECTRONIC RESOURCES CONSORTIUM LIBRARY INNOVATION TALK 2014 UNITAR INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY 26 August 2014 Edzan, N.N. UM Library

OUTLINE Consortium Why a consortium MOLEC MOLEC – what we do Future plans

CONSORTIUM Library consortium/consortia – has been around since the 1960s Now – library consortium/consortia centers around electronic information sources Defining consortium A collectivity of any group of libraries towards a common goal ~ Prakash, 2005. Two or more institutions or organisations that have formally agreed to cooperate or consolidate certain functions to achieve mutual objectives ~ Moorthy, 2009. The collaborative acquisition of access rights to electronic databases and journals ~ Varaprasad and Madhusudhan, 2010.

CONSORTIUM Primary aim of a consortium – achieve as a group what a member cannot achieve individually Involves homogenous institutions with a common focus and can be local, regional, functional or subject based Types - Open consortium, Closed consortium, Centrally-funded, Shared budget, Publishers’ initiative, National consortium, International consortium Management of a consortium – the presence of a committee that links consortium members to vendors/ publishers and deals with financial and legal aspects

CONSORTIUM Involving academic libraries + electronic content licensing + participating consortia in ICOLC Australia – CAUL (Council of Australian University Libraries) India – UGCINFONETDLC - UGCINFONET Digital Library Consortium Japan – JUSTICE - Japan Alliance of University Library Consortia for E-Resources Korea – KESLI - Korean Electronic Site License Initiative New Zealand – EPIC - Electronic Purchasing In Collaboration Taiwan – CONCERT - CONsortium on Core Electronic Resources in Taiwan

WHY A CONSORTIUM? Shrinking/static budget Increasing number of journals Increasing cost of journals Increasing demand from users for more resources Research-based universities – access to more sources to support their research activities Requirements set by publishers/vendors

MOLEC Differences in pricing of commercial databases offered by publishers / vendors to academic libraries JKK PDK in 2000 under PERDANA (Sistem Perpustakaan Digital Negara) Main function – coordinates pricing of commercial databases Ist meeting – 21 March 2000 in Perpustakaan Tun Seri Lanang, UKM with 12 public & private university libraries

MOLEC Changed name to JKPDK & changed name again in 2010 – Malaysian OnLine Electronic Resources Consortium or MOLEC MOLEC – Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia, 20 public university libraries, 7 GLC university libraries, 7 government/non government agency libraries = 34 with the UM Library as Chair & Secretariat Objective of consortium Establishes the concept of resource sharing of commercial databases Subscribes to commercial databases as a consortium

What we do Conduct workshops/courses/seminars – sharing of experiences & ideas Invite publishers/vendors for product presentation Make presentations to interested parties Meet once every four months or when necessary

INVITATION MOLEC will be having a meeting 4 September 2014 Level 4.Chancellery, University of Malaya 9 am If you want to attend, please e-mail sutarmi@um.edu.my

What we do Identify ways & means of addressing the various Government policies & regulations with regards to subscription of non-Malaysian commercial databases Every member has to provide a listing of all their subscribed databases & all freely available databases & e-journals on their website Maintains MyULIS (Malaysian Union List of Serials) Master List of Commercial Databases Master List of Backfiles/Archives

What we do Develop the GARIS PANDUAN PEROLEHAN SUMBER MAKLUMAT ELEKTRONIK Identify, study, evaluate & manage negotiations for subscription to commercial databases Member of ICOLC = platform to share information and experiences and get assistance Our website - Library.oum.edu.my/molec

What we do Obtained funding from MOHE for subscription to online databases and one time purchase of electronic book 2010 to 2012 : ProQuest Dissertation & Thesis Fulltext Bernama Library & Infolink Service (BLIS) Scopus EBSCO Academic Source Premier and Business Source Complete IEEE NetLibrary Ebooks 2015 to 2016 : will be applying

Future Plans Formation of a national consortium with government funding for country wide access to electronic resources Increase membership especially from private higher education institutions to strengthen the consortium Collective negotiations with publishers to curb spiralling price increases Explore other existing electronic resources consortia to benchmark for best practices Develop new consortial models incorporating new pricing models and licensing practices

REFERENCES Francis, A.T. 2005. Library consortia model for country wide access of electronic journals and databases. International Conference on Multilingual Computing and Information Management in Networked Digital Environment, 2-4 February 2005. International Coalition of Library Consortia. 2010. ICOLC. http://www.icolc.net Moorthy, A.L. 2009. DRDO e-journals consortium. Journal of Library & Information Technology, 29(5), 18-23. Ossai, N.B. 2010. Consortia building among libraries in Africa, and the Nigerian experience. Collaborative Librarianship, 2(2) : 74-85. Parkash, A. J. 2005. Role of e-journals consortium in 21st century. 3rd Convention Planner, 10-11 November 2005. Varaprasad, S.J.D. and S. Madhusudhan. 2010. E-journal consortium: is it a success story always? Journal of Library & Information Technology, 30(2), 92-96.

Thank you edzan@um.edu.my