Setting our sights on a Malaysian e-journal consortium
Nor Edzan Che Nasir
Library
University of Malaya
 Consortium – association or partnership
 E-journal consortium – collaborative acquisition of
access rights to electronic databases and journals
(Varaprasad & Madhusudhan, 2010)
 Primary aim – achieve what members of the group
cannot achieve individually
TYPES
 Open consortium
 Closed consortium
 Centrally-funded
 Shared budget
 Publishers’ initiative
 National consortium
 International consortium
MALAYSIA
 The National Library & academic libraries – have been
sharing resources since the 1970s or even earlier
 PERPUN
 Sharing of ideas, experiences
 Sharing of collection – ILL, DDS & library use
 SIGs
 Now – commercial database consortium
MOLEC
 Obvious differences in pricing of commercial databases
offered by publishers/vendors to academic libraries
 JKK PDK set up 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
 12 public & private university libraries
 Changed name to JKPDK
 Changed name again in 2010 – Malaysian OnLine Resources
Consortium
 National Library, 20 public university libraries, 7 GLC university
libraries, 7 government/non government agency libraries = 35
 Current Chair & Secretariat = UM Library
 Objective of the consortium
 Establishes the concept of resource sharing of commercial databases
 Subscribes to commercial databases as a consortium
 Scope – all commercial databases
What do we do?
 Identify, study, evaluate & manage negotiations for subscription to
commercial databases
 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
 Develop
the GARIS PANDUAN
MAKLUMAT ELEKTRONIK
PEROLEHAN
SUMBER
 Source for funds from MOHE
 Conduct workshops/courses/seminars – sharing of experiences
& ideas
 Invite publishers/vendors for product presentation
 Make presentations to interested parties
 Meet once every two months
Why are we doing all this?
 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
EXAMPLES

Africa ( all forms of consortium)

SABINET (South African Bibliographic & Information Network – 1983)

CALICO (CAPE Libraries Cooperatives - 1992)

FRELICO (Free State Libraries & Information Consortium – 1996)

GAELIC (Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium – 1996)

esAL (Eastern Seaboard Association Libraries – 1997)

SEALS (South East Academic Library System – 1996)

SANLic 9South African National Library & Information Consortium – 1999)

CATNIP (cataloging Network )

COMLIB (Communication & Library Project – 2000)

China

CALIS (China Academic Libraries & Information System – 1998)

India (e-journal consortium)

UGC/INFLIBNET (University Grants Commission/Information & Library Network)

INDEST ( Indian Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology)

FORSA (Forum for resource Sharing in Astronomy & Astrophysics)

CSIR Consortium (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research)

Japan

JANUL (Japan Association of National University Libraries)

Malawi

MALICO (Malawi Library & Information Consortium)

South Korea

KESLI (Korean Electronic Site Licence Initiative – 1999 – 355 or 487 libraries)

KERIS ( Korea Education & Research Information Service – 1999)
References
International Coalition of Library Consortia. 2010. ICOLC.
http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/
National Knowledge Resource Consortium. 2011. NKRC.
http://124.124.221.7/
Ossai, N.B. 2010. Consortia building among libraries in Africa, and
the Nigerian experience. Collaborative Librarianship, 2(2) : 74-85.
Ramos, M.M. and Kamsiah Mohd. Ali. 2005. Maximising library
resources through consortial subscriptions: the case of the
CGIARLIS Consortium. IAALD Quarterly Bulletin, L(1/2) : 5-9.
Sreekumar, M.G. and T. Sunitha. Library capacity building through
e-journal consortia: the Indian senario.
http://dspace.iimk.ac.in/bitstream/2259/249/1/09-mgs-sunithapaper+new.pdf
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.