Unified Access to Heterogeneous Resources in a Distributed Library Consortia Environment: Challenges and Opportunities

摘要

Library consortia in today’s digital age are quite different from that of library networks in yester years. The main reason is that the resources that are shared in today’s consortia environment are predominantly in electronic form such as electronic journals and databases. Hence the technology and associated tools to support sharing the electronic resources are also important components for the success of any library consortia. It is essential that each participating libraries of a consortium is equipped with necessary and sufficient technology to support sharing the resources across. Unified access to heterogeneous resources is one of the greatest challenges that library consortia face. The paper looks at the unified access system to search heterogeneous resources in a distributed library environments. The paper discusses the challenges and opportunities of unified access systems by looking at some of the major international initiatives.