TIPS FROM THE TRENCHES

摘要

Ensuring our constituents and communities have access to the myriad plenteousness that is the world of library electronic resources can be dizzying and dismaying, albeit rewarding. The continuing shifts and swerves that affect e-resource acquisitions, licensing, and access act hand-in-hand with budgetary pressures and higher education adjustments to impact how librarians approach, determine, and undertake solutions to answer these challenges. One method to manage this situation is to turn to a tried-and-true library foundation, the consortia. Libraries have long banded together to cooperatively tackle various aspects of librarianship and survive. Consortial initiatives pertaining to acquisitions are nothing new, and arrangements for cooperative collection development of electronic resources follow a tradition pioneered for decades. Increased purchasing power, advocacy, cost reduction or containment, and shared management are just some of the facets a consortia may tackle pertaining to e-resources.