ADEBAYO, OYERONKE oyeronke.adebayo@covenantuniversity.edu.ng
ISIAKPONA, CHIDI chidi.isiakpona@covenantuniversity.edu.ng
ASAOLU, ADERONKE O. aderonke.asaolu@covenantuniversity.edu.ng
CENTRE FOR LEARNING RESOURCES
COVENANT UNIVERSITY, OTA
NIGERIA.
ABSTRACT
Libraries are resource centres that contain diverse forms of information materials that are used in satisfying the various information needs of its users. With the practice of consortium, libraries can provide access to information resources that are not owned by the library and in the long run fulfilling the primary objective. University libraries today are faced with the challenge of low funding especially federal universities as a result, there is little or nothing they can do in terms of providing quality library services to their clientele. It is therefore imperative that these libraries practice consortium in order to provide a suitable platform for the satisfaction of the information needs of their clienteles.
The study examined the role of Consortium in Electronic Resource Provision, challenges impeding the formation of consortium in Nigerian university libraries and suggested solutions to the challenges.
Keywords: Library, Consortium, Library Consortia Electronic Resources

INTRODUCTION
The fundamental aim of libraries is to provide timely, accurate, pertinent, and reliable information for their users especially in this 21 st century (Adebayo and Isiakpona, 2011); they are simply resource centres that contain diverse forms of information materials that are used in satisfying the various information needs of its users. This i nformation is usually contained in print and electronic (non-print) formats. Given the present economic recession evidently faced in various sectors of the country, acquiring electronic resources could be quite expensive especially putting into consideration the limited allocations made to university libraries. It is in this light that university libraries are encouraged to practice consortium building as this will help to save and minimize cost.
With the practice of consortium (which is made possible through the practice of virtual libraries) among university libraries in Nigeria, there is less emphasis on ownership and more emphasis is placed on access. Libraries can provide access to collections not held by the host library (Ojha, 2005), thereby giving their variety of library users wider opportunities to have access to information resources that are not owned by the library and in the long run fulfilling the primary objective of the library- satisfying users information needs.
Aina (2008) citing Dai (2002) describes a library consortium as an alliance formed by member libraries on a voluntary basis to facilitate resource sharing in pursuit of common interest. This practice of cooperation between or among libraries is usually practiced on a voluntary basis after necessary conditions have been noted. Some of these important aspects include the availability technological infrastructure, training, human resources, usability issues, etc. (Rahman, Nahar and
Akhter, 2006).
This study is therefore aimed at investigating the present state of consortium in university libraries in Nigeria in the bid to effectively provide electronic information resources to its users.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.
The value or importance of consortium building in university libraries in Nigeria;
2.
The present state of consortium building in university libraries;
3.
The place of consortium building in effective electronic resource provision in
University libraries;
4.
Challenges involved in consortium building in university libraries;
5.
Solutions to these challenges experienced.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Islam and Mezbah-ul-Islam (2008) opined that library consortium is a term that refers to “co-operation, co-ordination and collaboration between and amongst libraries for the purpose of sharing information resources.” It is usually not with the sole intention of profit making as a library is a nonprofit making organization. They also noted that the phenomenon of consortium derived much necessity from the fact that in this 21 st
century there is a vast explosion of knowledge and it’s impossible for a library to single handedly monitor explosion of knowledge and accumulate for its various users. Chauchan, Chand and Kaur
(2011) also defined library consortium as “a formal association or a joint venture of homogeneous libraries that operates on mutual approved terms to share the resources among members”.
Folorunsho and Folorunsho (2010) defined a library consortium as a group of two or more libraries that have agreed to cooperate with each other to fulfill certain similar needs, usually information sharing. They also reiterated that
Consortium is “an association of independent libraries and/or library systems established by formal agreement usually for the purpose of resource sharing. Membership may be restricted

to a specific geographical region, type of library
(academic, public, school) or subject specialization”.
Therefore the practice of consortium among libraries, especially university libraries in
Nigeria should be given priority.
CONSORTIUM
UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
BUILDING IN
University libraries constitute important components in the infrastructure of knowledge in the University research and teaching (Ojo and Akande, 2004) hence it is usually referred to as the life-blood and heart of the institution, meant to serve both its users and users from the external context. It is in this light that
Mabawonku (2004) maintained that “academic libraries exist for the benefit of students and teachers. In order to function and serve the information needs of users, the library needs to have both print and electronic materials.”
Wikipedia (2012) defines a University library as “an academic library generally located on the campuses of colleges and universities and serve primarily the students and faculty of that and other academic institutions.” Freeman (2005) reiterated that: the library plays a vital role in the renewal and advancement of an institution’s intellectual life because it is the only centralized location where new and emerging information technologies can be combined with traditional knowledge resources in a userfocused, service-rich environment that supports today’s social and educational patterns of learning, teaching and research.
University libraries in Nigeria today have for the utilization of their clientele, resources in both print and non-print
(electronic) format; examples of some of the electronic resources available include e-books, e-journals, databases, CD-ROM, etc. Despite the level of importance of these electronic resources as information resources, it is obvious that some libraries may not be able to afford them as it is usually quite expensive. It is no news that university libraries today are faced with the challenge of low funding especially federal universities as a result there little or nothing they can do in terms of providing quality library services to their clientele. Ifijeh
(2012) quoting Punch (2008) reported that out of the N738 billion the federal government allocated to the sector between 1999 and 2007, the federal ministry of education spent about
N473 billion on salaries and wages, leaving a meager N265 billion for the development of infrastructure in these universities over a period of eight years. From this data is evident that as a result of slim budgetary allocation, the library cannot single handedly cater for the information needs of its users, users see the library as a mere reading room or study room (Ifijeh, 2012).
It is therefore imperative that these libraries practice consortium in order to provide a suitable platform for the satisfaction of the information needs of their clienteles.
Similarly, Kumbar (2008) reiterated that libraries in developing countries (which includes Nigeria) are faced with the challenges of inadequate funds and stringent budget which in the longrun affects the quality of services offered and the quality of collections available for the library clientele. This is because even though some of the University libraries in
Nigeriaare very much aware of the information needs of their users and the necessary resources that can be made available to satisfy these needs, they still can do little or nothing about the needs because of lack of available funds disbursed to them. It therefore becomes a herculean task for them to satisfy the user’s needs. It is as a result of this that Rahman,
Nahar and Akhter (2006) asserts that it is impossible for one library to procure all information on demand by its clientele; hence the much accepted system of resource sharing is put in place to ensure that the information needs

of the clientele are met. They also opined that consortia approach is one of the many ways of maintaining cooperation and coordination among the libraries and in fact it has emerged as the ‘state of the art’ in library cooperation in recent times.
Some justifications for the practice of library consortium as outlined by Chauchan,
Chand and Kaur (2011) include information explosion, increase in the cost and availability of scholarly information in electronic mode, etc.
Kumbar (2008) opined that Indian Universities are facing the challenge of maintaining the subscription of core journals due to increasing cost of these journals subscription and shrinking budget. He also noted that in order to bring the standard of research in Indian University to a level of global recognition the inculcation of consortium is highly essential.
Consortium building, also known as alliance, association, cooperation, collaboration, resource sharing, confederation and networking refers to a formal arrangement by a group of organizations (in this instance, libraries) with common interests in order to pool their material and human resources together to meet the needs of their users much more than they could have done were they to depend on individual efforts
(Nwalo, 2008 in Ifijeh, 2012).
Aina (2008) defined consortia as “a cooperative arrangement of purchasing electronic resources among a group of institutions, which will provide collective purchasing power and enable them to avail best possible facility to ensure highest discount price”. It is usually formed with the intent of enhancing resource sharing among libraries.
Moghaddam (2009) quoting the United States
Federal Communications Commission (FCC
Form 470) opined that:
“ library consortium is any local, statewide, regional or national cooperative association of libraries that provides the systematic and effective coordination of the resources of schools, public, academic and special libraries and information centers, for improving services to the clientele of such libraries”.
In the view of Rahman, Nahar and
Akhter (2006), a library consortium is an association of a group of libraries that agree to share their resources to satisfy the needs of users. With the rising rate of information explosion in various knowledge fields, it has become impossible for a single library to cater for all the information needs of its clientele, hence the phenomenon of library consortia has become very necessary (Islam and Mezbah-ul-
Islam, 2008). Ifijeh (2012) noted some important considerations that should be noted in order to ensure smooth consortium building among university libraries. Some of these considerations are explained thus:
Firstly, the goals and objectives of the consortium must be properly understood by members of the consortium. It is expedient that all the participating members in the consortium have a clear and vivid grasp of the objective of forming the consortium. They should be aware that it is not necessarily for profit making as the library is not a profit making organization; but it is to foster and promote information sharing in order to satisfy the varying information needs of their clientele; having it clearly at the back of their minds that it is much easier the participating libraries to satisfy the information needs of their clientele when involved in a consortium with similar libraries in this era of economic recession.
Ifijeh (2012) also noted that it is of great essence that there should be clearly outlined decision making processes for the members involved in the consortium. This will help serve as a guide when important decisions are to be taken on various issues among the participating libraries. It should also reflect the proper allocation of duties and responsibilities assigned to the various libraries involved.
Planning and formalized agreements on consortium arrangements are also important

considerations that must be noted. Before the formal take-off of consortium among participating university libraries, it is mandatory that there should clearly laid down agreement and terms of operations. These terms of operations or formal agreements must be duly signed and adhered to by the members involved in the consortium to avoid friction or misunderstanding during the process. The libraries involved must inform their proprietor/parent institution of their intention to be involved in resource sharing, as such vital agreements cannot be made solely by the library management team; the parent institution must be fully aware and in support of the consortium. It is also necessary that the libraries involved have similar goals and clientele as this will help in the process of consortium.
The place of communication in consortium cannot be overemphasized. It is therefore important that there should be a well defines process of communication among members in the consortium. These means of communication could be through regularly scheduled meeting where vital issues can be discussed, likely challenges could also be outlined and the means of salvaging these challenges noted. The capabilities of the participating libraries should also be put into consideration; this will help to ensure that no library involved is stretched beyond his ability.
Some other important considerations to look into for consortium building include the technology infrastructure needed to run a smooth consortium, manpower capacity of participating libraries, training of professionals, subscription payment issues, copyright issues and fair use, identification of resource, coordination among consortium partners, usages and usability issues and sustainability issues. (Rahman, Nahar and
Akhter, 2006)
ROLE OF CONSORTIUM
ELECTRONIC RESOURCE PROVISION
IN
Consortium among libraries helps to enhance mostly the process of sharing electronic resources. Library consortium also helps to minimize or reduce the cost acquired by libraries during acquisition and through resource sharing.
There are quite a number of benefits that are achieved as a result of library consortium, someof the benefits as noted byRahman, Nahar and Akhter (2006) include:

Building a highly comprehensive collection

Easy access to resource sharing on
Internet by developing common resources databases

Reduce cost of information

Time saving

Improve resource sharing

More professional services to users

Help to develop a competitive professionalism among Library and
Information science professionals.
Adediji (2009) also noted that some advantages of consortium include negotiating power, networking relative lower price per institution (compared to purchasing as stand- alone), technical support, and large user group base. Kumbar (2008) noted that consortiums are commonly formed to increase and heighten the purchasing power of the collaborating institutions to expand the resource availability and to offer automated services.
Zorzi (2004) citing Sanville (1999) noted that “the role of consortia is to increase and expand information use and creating and making available systems of information access and retrieval friendly.
It is important to note that library consortia is at the infant stage in a lot of countries of the world today, though in some other countries of the world like India and
Bangladesh, it has taken root. (Rahman, Nahar and Akter, 2006; Bajpai, Bidyut, & Bajpai,
2009; Pal and Das) .
It is imperative that university libraries in Nigeria begin to look towards the inculcation of consortia into their activities.

Ifijeh (2012) noted that in 1980, the
Committee of University Librarians of Nigerian
Universities (CULNU) initiated a cooperative scheme on inter-library lending and cooperative acquisition. He also noted that six Nigerian
Universities, including Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, Bayero University, Kano,
University of Ibadan, University of Jos,
ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile-ife and
University of Port-Harcourt are in the process of forming a consortium. The six universities are supported by the MacArthur Foundation and have adopted a common library software product called Virtua.
CHALLENGES IMPEDING
CONSORTIUM PRACTICE IN UNIVERSITY
LIBRARIES IN NIGERIA AND SOLUTIONS
According to Folorunso and Folorunso
(2010), the challenges hindering consortium practice in university libraries in Nigeria include lack of awareness and understanding on the part of most heads of libraries and policy makers, slim budget and poor funding of libraries, technical compatibility and security, egos and lackadaisical attitudes among libraries, inadequate resources, unavailability of web environment and lack of the required drive and leadership.
The following are other challenges militating against consortium formation in addition to those identified by Asamoah-Hassan
(2008), Asamoah-Hassan and Frempong (2008).
1.
Lack of software uniformity: Libraries make use of different types of software.
For effective consortium formation, it is important for the partnering libraries to be on the same software platform.
2.
Membership Subscription and commitment: Commitment of the members to the consortium has always been a challenge, coupled with the slow rate at which some members pay their membership fees and share of subscription cost to eresources.
3.
Institutional Sponsorship: Getting the management of institutions to agree to commit huge amount of funds for the subscription of e-resources could be an odious task.
4.
Membership: The slow pace of uptake of membership is affecting the rapid growth of the consortium.
5.
Funding: Lack of enough funds to allow for the subscription of several databases.
Since there is a library consortium in place, this meant that some databases very specific to an institution could not be subscribed and the institution that wished to subscribe to that, had to go it alone, which was often very expensive. Academic libraries should explore more alternative sources of funding as over reliance on the government on monies that are not forthcoming may not provide the desired solutions.
6.
Poor electricity supply: The electronic platform is a critical requirement for the building of consortium. The university libraries should provide backup power solutions such as inverters and generators in the eventuality of power surge.
7.
Slow bandwidths and network security: The Internet is a vital necessity for consortium formation. Resources would be shared virtually therefore the required bandwidths and network security should be put in place in order to ensure the smooth running of the consortium.
8.
Archival copies : The problem of keeping archival copies of e-journals and adding them to the catalogues and holdings of the libraries is of great concern. For example, as the situation is now, if a user were to request a copy of an earlier published

article at a later date it may not be possible for the library to get it.
9.
Technical Support: Consortium formation requires experts for the maintenance of the hardware and software such as professional librarians and ICT engineers. The technical support team would have to skilled in the use of computer,
Internet, electronic transaction processing systems, database management, to mention a few.
10.
Indigenous collection: Coverage of indigenous collections in the databases could be a challenge. There is no single database that collates these collections. Some university libraries are archiving their publications in their Institutional Repository.
11.
The inability to subscribe to a good number of databases hampers the ability of the consortium to offer a wide array of available sources. This is because compromises had to be reached on the types of databases to subscribe to as a group.
12.
User Training and Re-Training: there must be training and re-training of library patrons in order for them to fully maximize the e-resources. Without adequate training the resources that could have cost the institution huge amount of funds would not be maximized.
CONCLUSION
For any library or group of libraries to successfully practice consortium or effective satisfaction of the information needs of its clientele there should be necessary facilities and infrastructure put in place to ensure that these resources are put to maximum use. When these infrastructure or facilities are not made readily available, the whole essence of providing electronic resources may be made futile.
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