The Long Road to Becoming a “Consortium of Swiss University Libraries”

Abstract

Although the idea that co-operative licensing of electronically researchable information products would bring positive benefits for academic libraries has probably been grasped by libraries in general, what is often lacking is a highperformance infrastructure, which would ensure its complicated management and extend the consortium in the medium term. This leads to the conclusion that the benefits of consortium-based solutions are relatively easy to present and would easily be accepted by those „affected“. On the other hand, the concrete workload often falls upon a few enthusiastic librarians. Up to a few months ago, the situation in Switzerland was no different, whereby in this country, the complex underlying political conditions made the situation particularly difficult for academic libraries. In the meantime, a consortium has managed to establish itself on a national level and the first products licenced in co-operation are in use. The following exposition gives a brief introduction to Switzerland’s specific situation and also sketches the basic structures of this co-operation model.