MOU and requirement for starting resource sharing among libraries

[priyanka vasudeva]

I want to start resource sharing among other libraies of our universities . i want to know how to start with it. basic requiremnts, MOU, sanctions ..What welse i required. Please help

[Siddhartha Shankar Ray]

Dear Ms. Priyanka Vasudeva,

 

Thanks for your post and congratulations for your effort. However, I apologise, I could not understand what you exactly meant to say by the phrase  "...resource sharing AMONG OTHER LIBRARIES of OUR UNIVERSITIES!!

 

Using the word OUR and again using the word universities in Plural is a bit confusing. In case you want to develop an  Inter-University Resource Sharing activity, it will be wonderful. However, there are several ifs and buts which you have to encounter and solve.

 

Some of the underlying questions are common:

 

(a) A very unpleasant (and rather bureaucratic) question will come first: Do YOU have any AUTHORITY to formally start such a venture ?

In case you have secured official permission from your Administration (which is prerequisite) you should better arrange for a formal meeting & send a proposal letter to other universities explaining the terms very clearly and precisely like

(b)  The nature and types of resources,

(c)  Themes for Cooperative Acquisition and its underlying financial aspects etc.are to be mentioned very clearly.

As far as my notion is concerned, the least complicated issue will be the issue related to e-journal subscription as INFLIBNET has made unique provisions for them.

So you have Print Journals, Books and e-books and Inter-Library-Loan to consider upon.

Acquisition of print journals especially the costly one, which are not covered through INFLIBNET Consortia needs nod from the faculty members from the participating universities The same thing is applicable to printed books as well. Besides, as universities, specializing your collection development activities to some select subject fields is no chil'd paly, it require a deep insight of present and more importantly future academic and research needs and you have to consider the NAACC inspection issue as well so that the participating Universities can provide them ample & befitting satisfactory explanations. Please do not view my statements as negative or adverse comments, but try to accept them as reality and practical.

In case you need to develop Inter-Library-Loan and/or document delivery services, please keep in mind about the underlying issues of copyright and tenure of such loans.

 

Finally, If you can establish the positive impact of the activities through cost-benefit and risk-benefit analyses, a lot of the problems I have explained above will be successfully minimized.

 

Regards,

 

Siddhartha S Ray, Calcutta