MAKERERE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY’S PIVOTAL
ROLE IN THE LIBRARY CONSORTIUM AND
RESOURCE SHARING IN UGANDA
by
Lydia Namugera and Caroline Kobusingye
Presentation at the IFLA ‘Document Delivery satellite
meeting: “Restructuring resource sharing: new
organisations, technologies, methods”- Nancy,
13-14th August, 2014
1
Outline
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Introduction
CUUL
Methodology
Response
Maklib’s pivotal role
Challenges and Solutions
Recommendations
Conclusion
Acknowledgment
Introduction: Uganda in East Africa
Introduction: Makerere Univ
• In 1922, Makerere Univ was established as a Univ College
of London, then Univ of East Africa & became a Nat Univ in
1972;
• Mak Univ 2013/14 admission is over 40,000 students from
Uganda & various countries from Africa & beyond.
• Makerere Univ Lib (Maklib) serves multiple roles. In 1958, it
became the 1st legal deposit unit in Uga;
• In 1972, Maklib became a National Reference Lib in
addition to its primary role as Ac lib;
Introduction … cont
• Since the 1990’s, Africa has been experiencing a
rapid expansion in higher education and research
• The expansion requires a vibrant lib & info service
to meet the changing user info needs and
demands;
• More so in Sub-Saharan African Univ Libraries
where shortage of infrastructure & facilities are
very common.
Introduction… cont
The ever-increasing student population
50000
Student enrolment 1990-2012
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
Academic Year
‘‘CUUL”…Introduction
• Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL)
was established in 2001 with the aim of
strengthening the network of librarians,
researchers and academics in Uganda.
• To provide effective and efficient lib and info
services, Ugandan libraries agreed to cooperate
formally by forming CUUL during a workshop on
“Library Cooperation for Effective Provision of
Information in Uganda and beyond”.
The Methodology
• A short survey was carried out to ascertain Maklib’s
role in CUUL
• A questionnaire consisting of 11 open-ended
questions was administered to CUUL member
participants online & also asked to share their
success stories spelling out CUUL benefits &
Maklib’s support as well as challenges faced.
• The paper further draws from Doc review of the
consortium reports & experience of the researchers
as active participants in CUUL activities.
The Methodology … cont
• Informal discussions with CUUL Executive
Committee members and former National Eresources coordinators were carried out to
obtain detailed information from a wider
scope of experience about CUUL’s activities.
The Response
• The survey response rate was 30% (12/40) of which one
institution – Young Men’s Christian Association was a non
CUUL member.
• 9 of the respondents had full membership, while 2 had
affiliate membership.
• On average these institutions had been subscribed to CUUL
for over 4 years, with the highest being 13 yrs & the least
less than 1 year.
• Low response was due to poor email or internet culture by
most Librarians, and lack of stable internet at the
institutions.
Maklib’s Pivitol Role
Document Delivery
Services
Member Recruitment
Resources Mobilisation &
Funding
Institutional Visits
Maklib
Resources Sustainability
Licensing and
Negotiations
Training & Capacity
building
Searching Tools
Monitoring and Evaluation
Membership Recruitment
45
Numner of Recruitments
40
35
30
25
No of Institutions
20
Expon. (No of Institutions)
15
10
5
0
2001-2004
2005-2008
2009-2012
2013-
Years
There is an exponential increase in the number of institutions from 23 in 2005-2008 to
40 in 2013 with 135%
12
Resource Mobilisation
&Funding
• Mobilising Resources from Institutions
• Proposal Writing to support agents eg.
SIDA,INASP
Response: “Maklib lobbied for SIDA funding which
greatly subsidized the cost of acquiring e-resources”
• Initiated the Collaboration of Uganda and
Research4life support organisations
13
Resources Mobilisation Cont…
Year
CUUL (USD)
2011
2012
2013
2014
28,224
31,213
37,136.71
39,196.08
Mak Univ/
SIDA (USD)
59,095
62,872.94
56,106
50,071
On average, Maklib contributes 63% to the eresources annual subscription fees
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Resource Sustainability
• In collaboration with SIDA & INASP, Maklib
supported CUUL to come up with an equal eresources sharing model
• By November 2006, out of the 43 registered PERIUganda institutions, only 10 (23%) had responded
to the e-resources sustainability initiative.
• Maklib then met the additional balance of the
budget worth USD 13,743 to the available USD
10,320.
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Current proposed cost Sharing model
• Full members are to pay 80% of the budget,
• Public institutions 50%,
• Private institutions 30%,
• Affiliates pay 20%.
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Licensing and Negotiations
Close collaboration with INASP when dealing
with Publishers
Responses:
“reduction in the costs of e-resources through
collective bargaining”
“The subscription costs have come down and
affordable through the consortium rather than
individual institutions”.
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Sourcing for federated search
Tools - Libhub
Thru Maklib’s collaboration with Global Ring Network
for Advanced Application Development team
(GLORIAD), CUUL members got free access to
Libhub.
Responses:“…students have been able to acquire articles for their
research papers on different topics using the various e-resources
subscribed to. Also, while using these materials, students were in
position to make notes and write timely course works from an
informed point of view.”
"There are more users now who have access to our resources, thanks to
Kiox and Libhub"
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Libhub: http://libhub.sempertool.dk/
Impact of Libhub
E-resources Usage statistics over the year
300,000
Full Text Downloads
250,000
200,000
150,000
Downloads per year
100,000
2 per. Mov. Avg. (Downloads per
year)
50,000
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Years
20
Training & Capacity Building
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technical troubleshooting and bandwidth management,
scholarly writing and communication
e-resources management,
leadership and management,
institutional repository management,
project planning,
marketing, pedagogy
demand driven workshops
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Training and Capacity building
Impact of Sida Support to Makerere
Universuty
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Training and Capacity Building
Cont…
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Training and Capacity building cont…
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Responses on Training
“we have shared experiences and best practices with
colleagues from sister academic libraries”
“hosting capacity building training which has
improved the performance of our staff members”
“connected us to emerald officials who trained our
academic staff in e-resources utilisation on the 26th
of May 2014”
Impact of Sida Support to Makerere
Universuty
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Participants in the Pedagogical
Skills
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Institutional Visits
Number of institutions visited Since 2011
12
Numer of Visits
10
8
6
Number of institutions visited
4
2
0
2011
2012
2013
2014
Year
27
Institutional Visits Cont…
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Document Delivery Services
Partners:
British Library
University of Bergen
University of Tennessee
Articles Delivered:
• 107 delivered in 2012,
• 395 delivered in 2013
• 166 articles have been delivered in 2014
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Document Delivery Services – DDS:
http://mulib.mak.ac.ug
Challenges and Solutions
• The cost of bandwidth has remained too high for many
Ugandan institutions, rendering them unable to access
online resources.
• Research and Educ Network for Ug (RENU), based at Mak
Univ in collaboration with CUUL supports research through
broadband connectivity. RENU has procured Network
equipment and established a network node. This has
improved internet access at Mak Univ and Ug Christian
Univ, and plans are underway to Connect Kyambogo Univ &
JCRC.
• Subscribing to the Ezproxy Software
Challenges, cont…
• The consortium is faced with limited funds, this is
mainly due to irregular payment of membership
and e-resources subscriptions fees.
• Lack of awareness of the benefits of the consortium
among the govt departments has hindered financial
support from govt.
• To address this, a committee in charge of lobbying
for govt support from institutions like National
Council of Higher Education has been formed.
The challenges, Cont…
• Limited human resource at institutions and
lack of training skills combined with poor ICT
skills.
• Poor internet culture to keep abreast with the
technological changes in libraries hinders the
resource sharing activities.
Recommendations
• Librarians have to become more innovative to lobby
and interest their institutions as well as govt to give
budget support to the consortium activities since
the activities are geared towards supporting
teaching, learning, research, and enhancing
national development.
• Librarians should keep up-to-date with the
technological changes in libraries to ease resource
sharing activities.
Conclusion
• Maklib’s role in supporting CUUL activities &
ensuring its’ sustainability is invaluable.
• Played its’ role as a Nat E-resources Coordinating
institution through training & capacity building of
members institutions, e-resources sharing,
Institutional visits and DDS among others.
Conclusion cont...
• “A passion to work for reasons that go beyond
money and status; a propensity to pursue goals
with energy and persistence lead to a strong drive
to achieve, and optimism even in the face of
failure” Goleman Daniel (What makes a leader,
Harvard Business review, 1998).
We will continue to ‘build for the future’ of Uganda
and beyond.
Acknowledgement
CUUL
Institutions
Mak Univ
adm
SIDA
MakLib
CUUL
Coordinators
INASP
EIFL