Library Technology Consortia

This collection of case studies presents seven examples of technology-based library consortia, each differing in scale in the technologies they employ, or in the services they aim to offer. The first study details the Peninsula Libraries Automated Network (PLAN), a multitype consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California. PLAN fits the typical image of a librry consortium in that it operates to a limited (county) geographic area and has demonstrated astute planning and management. The second study looks at Libraries Online Inc (LION) consortium of Connecticut which also operates a shared turnkey-integrated library system, but is not limited to any service area other than what the economics of telecommunications costs dictate. As a non-profit corporation, LION presents a contrst to consortiums defined by county, state or other political borders. The third case looks at the Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS) which serves pubic libraries in an artifically defined five-county area of rural up-state New York. FLLS has developed an access-based blend of technologies that strive to offer the most benefits at the least cost.
The fourth case looks at the ILLINET Online cosortium which offers more than access to bibliographic databases, for example periodical abstracting and indexing databases. They also plan to network with other consortia and local systems. The Kentucky Library Network is the subject of the fifth case which, in order to build a statewide union catalogue to support resource sharing, chose to employ a national bibliographic utility, OCLC and its Group Access Capability service. KLN is copying the union catalogue onto CD-ROM and including with it software that allows batch interaction with OCLC's interlibrary loan system. The PICA Library systems of northwest Germany and the Netherlands cover the sixth case. They demonstrate the benefits of a broad, multinational automation project employing homogeneous hardware, software and networking protocol solutions. The final case study looks at the experience of Scottish libraries' co-operative efforts which includes not only the disintegration of a single shared system into separate localized systems, but also the subsequent rebirth of networking.
Although these projects are different from one another, most library consortia are moulded by politics, economics and ambitions into distinct constructs. This collection of case studies seeks to illustrate how these dynamics, combined with technology, form co-operative library automation projects.
 
This collection of case studies presents seven examples of technology-based library consortia, each differing in scale in the technologies they employ, or in the services they aim to offer. The first study details the Peninsula Libraries Automated Network (PLAN), a multitype consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California. PLAN fits the typical image of a librry consortium in that it operates to a limited (county) geographic area and has demonstrated astute planning and management. The second study looks at Libraries Online Inc (LION) consortium of Connecticut which also operates a shared turnkey-integrated library system, but is not limited to any service area other than what the economics of telecommunications costs dictate. As a non-profit corporation, LION presents a contrst to consortiums defined by county, state or other political borders. The third case looks at the Finger Lakes Library System (FLLS) which serves pubic libraries in an artifically defined five-county area of rural up-state New York. FLLS has developed an access-based blend of technologies that strive to offer the most benefits at the least cost.
The fourth case looks at the ILLINET Online cosortium which offers more than access to bibliographic databases, for example periodical abstracting and indexing databases. They also plan to network with other consortia and local systems. The Kentucky Library Network is the subject of the fifth case which, in order to build a statewide union catalogue to support resource sharing, chose to employ a national bibliographic utility, OCLC and its Group Access Capability service. KLN is copying the union catalogue onto CD-ROM and including with it software that allows batch interaction with OCLC's interlibrary loan system. The PICA Library systems of northwest Germany and the Netherlands cover the sixth case. They demonstrate the benefits of a broad, multinational automation project employing homogeneous hardware, software and networking protocol solutions. The final case study looks at the experience of Scottish libraries' co-operative efforts which includes not only the disintegration of a single shared system into separate localized systems, but also the subsequent rebirth of networking.
Although these projects are different from one another, most library consortia are moulded by politics, economics and ambitions into distinct constructs. This collection of case studies seeks to illustrate how these dynamics, combined with technology, form co-operative library automation projects.