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Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology (INDEST): A Proposal for Strategic Cooperation for Consortia-based Access to Electronic Resources

Cooperation amongst institutions for sharing their library resources has been practised for decades. However, the mode of cooperation has been transformed with the infusion of new information technology. The emergence of the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web (WWW) as a new information delivery medium, triggered proliferation of Web-based full-text online resources. An increasing number of publishers use the Internet globally to offer their publications to the international community of scientists and technologists. The libraries and information centres, as heavy consumers of electronic journals and online databases, will benefit greatly from this technology-driven revolution. The proliferation of electronic resources in a networked society has resulted in the development of “shared subscriptions” or “consortia-based subscriptions” to journals everywhere in the world. Shared subscriptions to electronic resources through consortia of libraries is a feasible strategy to meet the pressures such as diminishing budgets, increased user demands, and rising costs of journals. This article outlines efforts made by Indian libraries and institutions towards formation of consortia of libraries for buying access to electronic resources. The proposed strategic cooperation called the “Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology” (INDEST) is based on five project pro-posals submitted to three major Ministries/Departments of the Government of India, namely, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT), and the Department of Biotechnology. The INDEST is proposed to function as a consortium of engineering and technological libraries for nurturing core digital collections in engineering and technology. As a consortium of libraries, the INDEST would bring together institutions receiving financial support from these three Ministries/Departments of the Government of India. While these Ministries/Departments would provide financial resources for establishing the consortium and for obtaining core electronic resources, the participating institutions would contribute for consortia-based subscriptions. The INDEST would host a variety of Web-based digital resources including those available through national and international agencies with consortia and national licences to provide access to authorized users in India.