Indian consortia models: FORSA libraries' experiences

Abstract

With increases in prices of journals, shrinking library budgets and cuts in subscriptions to journals over the years, there has been a big challenge facing Indian library professionals to cope with the proliferation of electronic information resources. There have been sporadic efforts by different groups of libraries in forming consortia at different levels. The types of consortia identified are generally based on various models evolved in India in a variety of forms depending upon the participants' affiliations and funding sources. Indian astronomy library professionals have formed a group called Forum for Resource Sharing in Astronomy and Astrophysics (FORSA), which falls under 'Open Consortia', wherein participants are affiliated to different government departments. This is a model where professionals willingly come forward and actively support consortia formation; thereby everyone benefits. As such, FORSA has realized four consortia, viz. Nature Online Consortium; Indian Astrophysics Consortium for physics/astronomy journals of Springer/Kluwer; Consortium for Scientific American Online Archive (EBSCO); and Open Consortium for Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer), which are discussed briefly.