To read this content please select one of the options below:

Tyranny of distance: the challenges of coordinating a multinational consortium

Denise Forro (Michigan State University Libraries, East Lansing, Michigan, USA)

Interlending & Document Supply

ISSN: 0264-1615

Article publication date: 12 August 2014

396

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate and report on the challenges faced by a multinational academic library consortium with a heterogeneous membership and widely varying collection resources.

Design/methodology/approach

The author uses a case study approach based on direct experience obtained with coordinating the word of such a consortium, from its nascent stages to its fully functional present-day form.

Findings

Coordinating the work of an academic library consortium that spans the globe presents challenges such as an inability to set a meeting time – and place – that is agreeable to all and copyright laws that vary from one country to the next. Cataloging practices may affect the system’s ability to select an appropriate supplier based on reported journal holdings, but this problem is easily solved by a careful review of local practices and the system’s search algorithms.

Originality/value

This article is of interest to anyone involved in a library consortium, regardless of its geographic boundaries.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

© Denise A. Forro, 2014. This paper was originally presented at the 13th IFLA Interlending and Document Supply Conference, in Beijing, China, 16-18 October 2013. Published with the kind permission of IFLA. www.ifla.org/. Articles published by Emerald which have their origins in an IFLA project are made freely accessible nine months after official publication. For permission to reuse this article, please contact the copyright holder.

Citation

Forro, D. (2014), "Tyranny of distance: the challenges of coordinating a multinational consortium", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 42 No. 2/3, pp. 83-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILDS-01-2014-0004

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Authors

Related articles