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