Presentation given to the Lebanese University, Library Science Masters Students, Beirut-Lebanon

1. Academic Library Consortia
in Lebanon
By
Houeida Kammourié-Charara
LALC Coordinator
©2012

2. Agenda
• Consortia: Definition, History, etc.
• Library Consortia:
– National:
• LALC, LIDS
– International:
• AMICAL
– Global:
• ICOLC.
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3. Definition Of Consortium
• Consortia OR Consortiums.
• “Formal association of a number of organizations, usually in
a specific geographical area, with agreed goals and
objectives.
• Services covered can include collection development,
cataloguing, computer alliances, systems support,
education and training, interlibrary loans, library
automation, purchasing, etc.”.
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4. Consortia History
• 1960s: Creation of union catalogs
– Library Consortia flourish.
• 1970s: Interlibrary loans, joint storage, etc.
• 1980s: Automation
– Stagnation period.
• 1990s: Re-flourishing of Consortia for electronic resources.
• 2000s: Consortium of Consortia.
• 2010s: Emergence of mobile devices and applications such as: Smart phones,
e-book readers, iPads, and other handheld devices; it will definitely be part of
the consortia work.
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5. National Level
• LALC: Lebanese Academic
Library Consortium
• LIDS: Lebanese ILL/DD
Services
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6. LALC story
• The vision began in 2001. The University of
Balamand was the leader by inviting and encouraging
all major academic institutions in Lebanon to
develop a library consortium of electronic resources.
• Three private institutions replied to the UOB
invitation (Board members). Jointly they formed
LALC, the first Arab and Lebanese formal Academic
Library Consortium.
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7. LALC members
The Board:
• American University of Beirut (AUB)
– JAFET and SML represented by Ms. Hilda Nassar (SML) and Mrs. Olga Ayoub-Mansour
(Jafet)
• Lebanese American University (LAU)
– RNL and Byblos represented by Mrs. Houeida Kammourié-Charara
• Notre Dame University (NDU)
– represented by Mrs. Samar kai-Kiwan
• University of Balamand (UOB)
– represented by Ms. Randa Al-Chidiac
In 2006 two new members joined:
• Université Saint Joseph (Medical Library) (USJ)
• Université Saint Esprit de Kaslik (USEK)
And in 2011 two new members joined:
• Beirut Arab University (BAU)
• Haigazian University (HU)
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8. LALC “raison d’être”
• To cope with changes that took place in the university
environment in Lebanon.
• To keep pace with users requests and expectations in
academic libraries, mainly in the e-resources field.
• “To cooperate in the selection, pricing negotiations and
access methods of electronic resources in the best
interest of the library users in an economical way for the
library”.
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9. Letter of Agreement
• In 2002 a draft was prepared for LALC By-Laws which stated:
– “LALC Mission Statement is to improve and expand the library services and resources of its institutional
members. This is achieved through building a cooperative yet comprehensive collection of electronic
resources and e-journals that will enable LALC member institutions to share resources and provide
information to their users more efficiently and cost-effectively.”
• This draft had never been approved and was replaced by a Letter of
Agreement (LOA).
• In May 3rd 2004, a formal LOA was signed between LALC members in which
the parties agreed to establish a consortium under the name of "Lebanese
Academic Library Consortium – LALC”. After 2 years of active work, LALC status
was officially announced. The LOA governs all LALC activities, and it is re-
signed when new members join LALC.
• The 2008 LOA included USJ and USEK in addition to the board members.
• A new LOA needs to be signed that includes the additional members, however
it is not yet done due to merging issue (LALC with another consortium).
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10. Administrative Structure
• Each member library is represented by one librarian designated by the
institution.
• The Consortium Coordinator is elected among LALC members for a period of
three (3) years with the possibility of renewal.
• Meetings are held on a rotation basis at the location of the member
institutions and are agreed on at the end of each meeting.
• Budget planning, payments and agreements are done on individual basis; each
institution has its own payment methods and applies its own policies and
procedures in this regard.
• No membership fees.
• Set procedures and guidelines for trialing, acquiring e-resources, & project
proposals.
• In 2010 the Lebanese American University launched LALC website:
http:lalc.lau.edu.lb
LALC is a “buying club” for e-resources
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11. LALC Medical Consortium
• LALC member institutions providing medical programs
formed a specialized mini consortium:
• AUB-SML
• UOB
• USJ-Medical Library
• USEK
• This consortium acts as a sub-division of LALC and follows
all LALC policies & procedures.
N.B. With the creation of the School of Medicine at LAU and the membership of BAU
this mini consortium is not needed anymore.
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12. Lebanese ILL/DD Services:LIDS
• The idea of having an ILL/DDS
service was first conceived by LALC
in 2004, but didn’t succeed due to
internal private reasons.
• In October 1, 2007 The Lebanese
ILL/DD Services (LIDS) was born and
ILL/DDS policies and procedures
were drafted.
• The main goal of LIDS is to initiate
processes & services to expand
resource sharing, and to produce a
union list of journal holdings of
member institutions
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13. LIDS Prerequisites
• Online OPAC
• Subscribe to LIDS e-journals
portal (cancelled in 2011 due
to budget constraints).
• Accept the terms and
conditions of LIDS and adopt
the procedures and processes.
LIDS members are all LALC members too, in addition to ESCWA and
Middle East University.
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14. International Level
• AMICAL
Consortium
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15. AMICAL Consortium
• “AMICAL is an international consortium of American-model, liberal
arts institutions of higher learning located outside the United
States”.
• AMICAL was formed in 2004, via the leadership of the American
University of Paris, and the support of the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation.
• “AMICAL is committed to sharing information and technologies
across national and linguistic borders, using English as the primary
language for consortial work”.
• Lebanon hosted two AMICAL conferences: 2005 and 2011 (at LAU).
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16. International Coalition of Library
Consortia (ICOLC)
• The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) first
met informally as the Consortium of Consortia (COC) in
1997. It is a self-organized group with over 200 library
consortia from around the world.
• “All library consortia anywhere in the world that are in
general agreement with the ICOLC Statements issued over
the years are welcome to participate in the activities of
ICOLC and identify themselves as participating consortia”.
• LALC is the first Lebanese and Arab Library Consortium that
joined ICOLC.
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17. Together we are stronger!!!
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18. Future Challenge
• To review and evaluate the consortium work in order to create an
example that would set standards for consortia in Lebanon.
• To attempt to add more functions to LALC by exploring new ways of
improving LALC, such as cooperative cataloguing, online union
catalogue, providing common training sessions and preparing manuals
for e-resources that all members can share.
• LALC members are actively promoting it by presenting papers on the
Lebanese experience in establishing a consortium in different
conferences and workshops.
• To widen membership to possibly include regional institutions.
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19. Thank you
Q&A
Houeida Kammourié-Charara
LALC Coordinator
E-mail houeidakam@hotmail.com
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20. References
Al-Chidiac, Randa.” The challenging & daring experiment: LALC.” eIFL Workshop, LAU, Beirut, March 2006.
Habre, Cendrella. "Lebanese Academic Library Consortium.“ AFLI 13th Conference, Beirut. Oct.-Nov. 2002.
Kammourié-Charara, Houeida. "Academic library consortia with examples from the Arab World.“ MELCOM 25th
Conference, Beirut. May 2003.
Kammourié-Charara, Houeida. “LALC: A Successful Challenge.” eIFL Collaborative Management Of Electronic Resources
Workshop, Cairo, April 2005.
Kammourié-Charara, Houeida. “ LALC: One more time. Special Library Association, Arabian Gulf Chapter: Pre-conference
workshop, Doha. 2008.
Kammourié-Charara, Houeida. "The Role of Consortia in Academic Libraries: A Case Study of the Lebanese Academic Library
Consortium (LALC)." Diss. U of Wales, 2003.
Lebanese Academic Library Consortium (2004). Annual Report, 2003-2004.
Lebanese Academic Library Consortium (2008). Annual Report, 2005-2006 & 2006-2007.
Websites:
AMICAL http://www.amicalnet.org/
LALC http://lalc.lau.edu.lb/
International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) http://www.library.yale.edu/consortia/
OCLC http://www.oclc.org/default.htm
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