Knowledge without boundaries . Planning, creating, managing and sustaining a successful library consortium. TEMPUS workshop 21 - 24 November.

Knowledge without

boundarieswww.eifl.net

Planning, creating, managing and sustaining a successful

library consortium.

TEMPUS workshop 21 - 24 November 2011Algiers

Some Things You Will Learn• Why consortia are important

• How to get organized: strategy, membership, and governance

– defining mission, vision, values, goals and objectives

– defining types of libraries that qualify for membership

– deciding the most appropriate governance model

• How to decide which programs and services the consortium should (or should not) provide

• How to fund the consortium and ensure its sustainability

• How to market to and communicate with your members and other stake-holders

• How to assess the value the consortium provides to its members and the success of the consortium

OVERVIEW: Day 1Morning

Introduction to the ‘consortium’

WG I: The situation in Algeria

Afternoon

Planning the consortium

Defining Mission, Vision and Values

Establishing the Governance

Defining Program Definition and Service Delivery

WG II: Planning and managing the Algerian consortium

OVERVIEW: Day 2

Morning

Membership structure

Funding and Budgeting

WG III: Members and budget for the Algerian consortium

Marketing and Advocacy

Examples from EIFL consortia

Planning of next steps

Section 1:What is a consortium, what are the benefits, challenges and impact of working in a consortium.

What is a library consortium?

A library consortium is a group of libraries that work together to achieve common goals. Consortia provide library users through their member libraries with cost-effective, essential electronic collections and services.

As a proven model in countries around the globe, consortia enable libraries to provide services that they could not provide on their own, and to share expertise and best practice amongst its members.

Characteristics of successful consortia• Committed membership

• Consensus on joint programmes and services

• Cost effective operations

• Sustainable funding

• Adequate staffing

• Effective governance structure and processes

• Good communications

Challenges of creating a consortia• Libraries may fear losing some of their

autonomy or flexibility

• Decision-making may be slower

• Individual libraries may have to do more work on behalf of the consortium

• Not all members may be willing to contribute equally in terms of time or funding

The consortium adds value for the usersThe consortium should

•Foster cooperation among members and reduce redundant efforts, thereby increasing efficiency and effectiveness of libraries

•Build upon and expand the resources, services and competencies of individual members

•Strengthen advocacy for modern libraries

•Have costs for membership that are reasonable, predictable and sustainable, and decrease costs as more libraries participate

More benefits…

Enables members to do more things more effectively and economically together than they could do on their own.

• Significant reduction in the cost of access to e-resources

• Stronger ability to negotiate favourable terms and conditions of use of e-resources

• Joing expansion of services and resources

• Sharing of staff skills and expertise to strengthen library performance

• Joint promotion of cost effective, customer driven services

WORKING GROUPS ITHE SITUATION IN ALGERIA

• Existing collaboration and resource sharing

• Barriers to cooperation

• Environmental scan and SWOT

• List of key stakeholders

– Appoint chair and rapporteur

– Report back main points and conclusions

Environmental ScanAssess Trends

and Changes in:

Society

Economy

Technology

Information Content

Education

Environmental Scanning Tools• External research

– Publications

– Web reports, podcasts, etc.

• Market analysis of stakeholders

– Surveys

– Focus Groups

• Networking with others in the profession

• SWOT analysis

• Scenario planning

SWOT AnalysisAn organizational compass that defines

Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

•Purpose, for your consortium,

o to collect perspectives about the future consortium and its prospects for success

o to assess organizational core competencies

o to identify and minimize weaknesses and threats

o to build on strengths and define opportunities

o to look at leadership, trends, costs, pricing, etc. that provide the opportunity for success

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SWOTInternally Driven Issues:

Strengths and Weaknesses

Externally Driven Issues:

Opportunities and Threats

• Human resources• Management• Funding• Programmes and

Services

• Demographic forces

• Economic forces

• Technological changes

• Cultural & social changes

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• Strengths– What does your consortium do best? – How do current services relate to the emerging needs

of your members? – Can the strengths be quantified and compared?

• Weaknesses– In what areas do you lack resources or competence

to be effective? – How critical are these areas to the needs of your

members? – Can changes be made readily? If not, what are the

consequences?

Question: #1 Strength of every organization?Examples

EIFL partner country consortia examples

ELCAElectronic Library Consortium of Armenia

• Established n 2002 (grant from OSI); 48 members

• In 2011, 44 members

– Research institutions – 22

– Public libraries – 16

– Universities – 6

CARLIGH

Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana

http://www.carligh.org/

• Established in 2004, 7 member libraries

• In 2011, 27 member libraries

EULCEgyptian Universities Libraries

Consortium (EULC)

http://www.eul.edu.eg

• Established in 2005, 12 governmental Universities and the American University in Cairo (AUC)

• In 2011, 19 governmental universities besides other academic and educational institutions

LELICO

Lesotho Library Consortium

• Established in 2004, 9 member libraries

• In 2011, 14 member libraries

• Active persons are appointed coordinators

LMBALithuanian research library consortium

http://www.lmba.lt/

• Established in 2001, 23 libraries

• In 2011, 46 libraries

• Governing structure

– The General Stakeholders Meeting; 2 x a year

– Elected President and the Board (7 members)

NEICON

National Electronic Information Consortium (Russia)

http://www.neicon.ru/

• Established in 2002, 113 members

• In 2011, 670 member institutions in 120 cities

Section 2:Planning to establish the Consortium

Considerations when forming a consortium

• Consortium Governance

• The Strategic Plan

• Membership Structure

• Program Definition and Service Delivery

• Funding and Budgeting

• Marketing and Advocacy

• Operations Management

Important Questions in the planning phase

• What is the consortium’s mission, vision and values?

• What should be the governance structure?

• What are the joint programme and service areas?

• AND: …who will organize, manage, and do the work in setting up the consortium…?

Getting Started

• Conducting a planning meeting

• Organize a general meeting

• Determine governance structure

• Elect officers

• Create governance documents

– Bylaws

– Incorporation

– MoUs

Getting started: Step 1 Conducting the planning meeting

• Prepare a short (one paragraph) statement of desired outcomes for the meeting

• Create a brief agenda

• Keep the “initial planning committee” group relatively small

– 8-10 key leaders in the country to participate (preferably in-person)

• Determine meeting logistics

– Set the date, time and location of the first meeting

– Decide meeting invitation list

Getting started: Step 2Outcomes of planning meeting

• Define the key purposes of the consortium

• Define the targeted membership (e.g., academic libraries, public libraries, all libraries?)

• Agree upon the consortium’s mission and value

• Create a list of key action items and

• Identify organizing leaders and their roles *

• Assign tasks for every attendee to accomplish before the next meeting

• Determine how leaders will share information between meetings (e.g., Google Docs, listservs)

• Set date & place for general meeting

Convene a meeting for all potential consortium members• Time to build consensus and momentum

– Expand attendee list beyond the initial organizers to include all potential interested parties

• Create meeting agenda

• Provide summary of results from planning meeting

– Consortium mission, vision and value

– Preliminary leadership

• Decide next steps, timeframe, assignments, communications

• Agree who will convene / host the next meeting

General Meeting Agenda

• Explain the potential benefits of a consortium

• Provide an overview of the results of the planning meeting

• Determine if there is potential agreement upon

– the mission

– membership

– potential consortium programmes and services

• Select planning committee and chair

After the General Meeting: Checklist of Next Steps

Create a list of potential stakeholders and contact them

Ask for a statement to affirm interest of attendees

Circulate mission statement for general membership approval

Define the roles and responsibilities of leadership

Create tentative list of priorities

Send meeting summary to all attendees

Define communications methods

Section 3Strategic Plan.Mission, vision, values, goals, objectives……

Process

• Conduct meetings, retreats or workshops to develop the consortium strategic plan

• The initial strategic plan should be for a period of two-to-three years

Strategic Planning OverviewPre-planning

• Meeting decisions

• Environmental Scan

Plan Contents

• Mission

• Vision

• Values

• Goals

• Objectives

Strategic Planning ResourcesThe following are available at no charge to EIFL members from the EIFL “members only” web site:

EIFL Strategic Planning Tip Sheet

Hirshon and SpohnLibrary Strategic Planning Toolkit

Strategic Planning: What it Does

• Assesses core competencies, and strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

• Articulates the mission, purpose, goals, and objectives

• Develops creative programme strategies to achieve the organizational objectives

• Identifies the human and fiscal resources necessary to achieve the preferred outcomes

• Measures the extent to which an organization is achieving its goals

• Questions underlying assumptions so the organization can be nimble to respond to a constantly changing environment

A strategic plan does not constrain a library from seizing unanticipated opportunities that may arise

Strategic planning is a process, not just the resulting plan. The right decision reached through a bad process can lead to poor implementation or lack of support.

Bear in Mind …

Values• Core shared beliefs: what

drives our people and organization?

Mission Statement

• Establishes the purpose of the organization: why does it exist?

Vision Statement

• Brief, practical, forward-looking statement of desired outcomes: what will we look like in 5 years?

Goals

• Specific “wildly important actions” to achieve the mission and vision, and to stretch the organization

Objectives• Specific steps to achieve the

goals successfully over the term of the plan

Actions• Specific actions to

implement the objectives

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Mission, vision, values, SWOT, goals, objectives, strategies

Tactical analysis, performance standards, budget, organization chart

Operations analysis: workflows, policies, procedures, service plans

Annual goals: organization & individual

Budget, personnel assignments, projects, assessment

Strategic Plan

OperatingPlans

ActionPlans

Individual goals &

performanceAnnualPlans

Mission

Establishes the overarching purpose of the entire organization

Why does the organization exist?

What needs of its clients does the organization serve?

Mission• Make it memorable!

– Focus on what you want to

– accomplish, not how

– Future oriented

– Concise: one sentence or less• It doesn’t have to be a sentence• The shorter the better

Examples

To connect people and information at the university and beyond

To advance learning and research as the intellectual, cultural and social center for information

discovery

LYRASISCollaboration,

creative solutions, and leadership for

libraries

Vision• Brief, practical, forward-looking

statement of desired outcomes

– What will the organization look like in 5 years?

– Make it memorable!

Example

The Library will actively partner to create services for on-campus and distance learners through:

Intuitive accessMobile services

Engaging and enjoyable learning experiencesVibrant facilities for study and research

LYRASIS: Great libraries. Strong communities. Innovative answers.

LYRASISGreat libraries.

Strong communities.Innovative answers.

Values• Articulates core shared beliefs

• Describes the organizational culture that will guide the execution of the plans

• Defines the cultural norms within which individual staff are expected to act

Values

Example

Create a welcoming environment

Deliver excellent service

Agile and driven to act

Forward thinking and adaptable

Encourage intellectual curiosity

• Not a generic list nor a laundry list• Keep it short and make it meaningful• Length: 5-8 words or brief statements

Example

Open Flexible

Resourceful Responsive

Goals• Defines key areas and desired outcomes

– Specific, measurable and time sensitive

• Separates program and internal goals

• Stretches, not breaks, the organization

• No more than 5 goals

• Examples

• Transform the library into an information literacy and discovery center to ensure student success

• Advocate for the information needs of our user community• Build a virtual library that is convenient, innovative and

intuitive• Create unique digital collections with global reach.

Objectives• Measurable and specific actions to be

taken to achieve the goals successfully over the term of the plan– Articulate multi-year objectives that relate to

each goal– Limit the number of consortium-wide

objectives

• Objectives provide the foundation for annual operating plans and business plans

ObjectivesGenerate SMART objectives

SSpecific

Significant

Stretching

MMeasurable

Meaningful

AAgreed upon

Attainable

Actionable

RRealistic

Results oriented

TTime based

Trackable

Objectives: Examples

• Create and implement a comprehensive e-book strategy

• Provide a Google-like search experience for library users with one search box.

• Implement access to services and resources via mobile devices.

• Increase engagement with distance learners using social media.

• Partner with faculty and students to create a more interactive information literacy experience

• Forge a campus-wide partnership to redesign the library facilities to meet the needs of today’s clients, employing flexible, ergonomic and inviting designs, modern technologies to support learning and rich media presentations, and collaborative and presentation spaces

Performance Indicators for the Strategic Mission

Mission StatementPurpose Audience Methods Outcomes

The library provides information …

for faculty and students of the university …

through electronic and print resources …

to enable our clients to meet their research and learning needs

Performance IndicatorsNumber of searches performed using e-resources

Use of facilities for research, group and individual study, determined through random counts

Involvement of faculty and students presenting their research results based upon library resources

Client responses re: lessons learned and quality of research or learning enhanced by library

Adapted from: Butler, L. The Nonprofit Dashboard: A Tool for Tracking Progress (BoardSource, 2007)

1. Failure to plan effectively: no plans or taking too long

2. Failure to investigate environmental changes

3. Failure of vision: too little innovation/stretch, too many sacred cows, or too much blue sky

4. Failure to focus and execute plans: too little attention to implementation or reallocation resources

5. Failure to be agile and respond to unanticipated changes• Too much hierarchy & bureaucracy, too little

empowerment

6. Failure to establish accountability (group & individual)

7. Failure to assess against meaningful success metricsbut

The Seven Deadly Sins of Strategic Planning

the process starts after the plan is written

Strategic Planning: Follow-Up

• Annually review all programs and services against the success metrics of the strategic and operating plans

• Based upon this review, determine whether to continue, modify, or eliminate each existing program and service

•Every three years, begin a new strategic planning cycle.

CARLIGH Strategic planning

• Marketing – librarians

• Advocacy – institutional heads & funders

• Fund raising – investments

• Good communication – with members and non-members

ELCA Strategic planning

• ELCA managerial aspects need improvements

– Create a more active board.

– Financial reporting must be more transparent.

– Better promotion of resources, awareness raising, skills development

• Yearly planning for various meetings and trainings

• Activate Web presence with news

– AUA is maintaining the mailing list of elCA members.

– ELCA web site is reconstructed.

• Fund raising. Close cooperation with State Agencies

EULCStrategic planning

• They have a strategic plan for the coming 5 years.

• The plan is part of the master plan of the ministry of higher education and scientific research for information technology and communication.

• It is among the ministry’s documents and EULC participated in developing it.

LMBA Strategic planning

• The Statute of Lithuanian Research Library Consortium

• Strategic activities are

– Fund raising

– Subscription to electronic databases

– Preparation and implementation of advanced technology and innovative projects in the libraries

• Important activities: OA, IP

• Increase membership (there are few college and research institute libraries not yet members)

• Future: continue EU funded project until 2015

SECTION 4: GOVERNANCE

Consortium governance

• Define organizational structure

• formal organization or• Memorandum of Understanding• Legal requirements (e.g. bylaws, articles of

incorporation)

• Board, director, staff

• Define committee structure

• Define membership structure

Organizational Structure• If the consortium will be an independent organization, prepare

bylaws, articles of incorporation, and register the consortium as a legal entity.

• If (for the time being) the consortium cannot be an independent legal entity, create a memorandum of understanding between the consortium and members to clarify roles and responsibilities

• Define your form of governance, including whether you will have a board of directors, and whether you will be:  

– an formal independent incorporation (e.g., an NGO)

– sponsored by a host organization (e.g., a lead university or government ministry

– an informal organization with no established home

Board, director, staffing

• If your consortium has a board, what is the composition of that board

• Determine who will be the officers or leaders, their roles, and their terms of office

• Determine if any staffing will be hired. (Note: it is common to start the consortium with only volunteer staff)

Staffing• Volunteer or paid?

Options:

• Consortium members pay membership fee

• Main funding agency (eg ministry) allocates budget for consortium operation

• Consortium office is hosted by 1 institution

• Consortium tasks are distributed to all the members, depending on where the expertise is

• Consortium fund-raises for its running costs

Committee Structure

• Identify a minimum number of standing committees to ensure effective ongoing program and consortium management.

– For example e-resources committee

– Fund-raising committee…

Ongoing Governance Issues

• Develop a calendar of recurring Board activities.

• Implement annual board nomination processes and election procedures

• Conduct regular general membership meetings (at least annually, if possible).

• Determine whether the consortium should migrate its governance model to become an independent incorporation (NGO) or otherwise changing its governance model.

• Assessing Board effectiveness

• Assessing consortium effectiveness

Governance• Simplest: informal organization - letter of

agreement or memorandum of understanding

• More sustainable: legal incorporation - open a bank account, sign contracts etc

• Your governance depends on your membership base and size

Good practice:

• Clear and agreed consortium policy and programs

• Clear decision making structure - board, president..

• Continuous communication

ELCAGovernance

ELCA is governed by a Board, consisting of 17 members

• Downloads of EIFL resources: Y2009/7920; Y2010/6821; Ratio of downloads to HE students for Y2010 =0.06

ELCA Staff

• 4 paid staff members (director, accountant, technical manager, licensing /from Jan. 2011/).

• EIFL coordinators: IP, OA, FOSS are volunteers

CARLIGHGovernance

3-tier

– Appointed advisory Board– Governing Board (Representatives from institutions)– Elected Management Committee

CARLIGHStaff

• Staff: No full time staff now but 4 voluntary workers

• EIFL coordinators integration in consortia activities; report activities to the Chair of the Management Committee who informs the members or directly to members at our meetings

LMBAGovernance

• The General Stakeholders Meeting; 2 x a year

• Elected President and the Board (7 members)

LMBAStaff

• Regular staff– Head of administration (part-time)– Databases administrator (full-time); vacant during the

EU project– Book-keeper (part-time)– Manager of public tender procedures (part-time)

• Grant-funded, EU project staff: 9 (4 full-time, 5 part-time)

• Volunteers from the member libraries

• EIFL coordinators (country, OA, IP, FOSS)

NEICONGovernance

Non-commercial partnership: Board of Founders (5), Executive Director

NEICONStaff

25 paid staff and 5 unpaid stuff • Executive director • 2 deputy directors (resource managers) • Resource manager (part-time) • Office IT person• Library tech support person• People responsibles for docflow • Accountants• Board of 5 experts – unpaid• EIFL coordinators: country, IP, FOSS, OA

EULC Governance

EULCStaff

9 persons

• Project coordinator

• Accountant

• Secretary

• License and contract specialist

• Quality Assurance

• Databases & Portal Administrators

• Union Catalogue Coordinator

• Digital repository coordinator

• Digital Library Coordinator

Section 5: Programme and Service Delivery

Programmes and Services• The menu of programme areas must be consistent with

the mission and goals of the consortium

• Need to define specific actions required to achieve the organizational mission and goals

Examples:

• marketing and user training program (to ensure take-up of e-resources)

• training for librarians (for effective e-resource sharing and management)

• digitisation of local content held by consortium members (….. for preservation…)

Program and Services

1. Conduct a needs analysis to determine what you will do

2. Define and prioritize services and programmes

Needs Analysis

Conduct a needs analysis (e.g., through electronic or telephone surveys, focus groups, online discussions) to identify member’s primary areas of need and opportunities for the consortium to meet those needs.

Define and prioritize services and programmesDefine and place in priority order the initial programmes

and services that will provide consortium members with the most value

• license e-resources• educational workshops• union catalogue• digitization• institutional repositories• technology support • intellectual property advocacy• Etc….

Adding Services Over Time: OhioLInk

Electronic Journals

ElectronicBooks

Off-siteDigital Media Center Images, data,

audio, video

Reference & Research Databases

Ven

do

r imag

es

Vendor videos

Inst. AV

Inst. images

On-siteE-Journal

Center

On-Site Central Catalog

Ebsco

Databases

Chat Reference

On-site E-books & full textliterature

E-books: vendor systems

OLinks

Subject Clusters

ISI WoS

Jour

nal

Citatio

n D

B’s

Web

DB’s

vendor s

yste

ms

E- Theses& Diss.

Source: Tom Sanville, OhioLINK

ELCA Activities: FOSS

• KOHA FOSS is in use in American University of Armenia.

• Evergreen, ePrints, Greenstone, Drupal are in use in NAS libraries.

• The library of the Gitelik University will implement OpenBiblio

• Greenstone to be implemented in the resource centre of VivaCell (telecommunication service provider)

ELCA Activities: licensing

• 2003, provided access only to EBSCO.

• 2011, provides access to EBSCO, Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford Reference Online, BioOne

• 2009-2011. Ministry of Culture is paid for subscription to EBSCO, INTEGRUM

• 2011. Ministry of Education and Science has paid for one year subscription to Springer. Beneficiaries are; libraries, Universities, research institutions all over Armenia.

• 3 month trail for Science Direct and Scopus.

• ELCA letter to University rectors has sent. Reaction is weak

ELCA Activities: IP

• Close cooperation with Armenian Intellectual Property Agency (AIPA)

• National Copyright Law will be discussed in the Parliament. AIPA will amend Limitations & Exceptions for libraries based on ‘EIFL-IP Draft Law on Copyright Including Model E&L for Libraries and Consumers’

• Armenian IP coordinator has presented 'Copyright for Librarians' curriculum. Training sessions on awareness and advocacy are conducted

ELCA Activities: OA

• Third Armenian scientific journal 'Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences: Mechanics' is registered in DOAJ (07 Feb. 2011).

• Presentations on OA

• State Linguistic University will implement ePrints (the library director is a 2nd year student in ISEC LIS).

• Failure: absence of Institutional Repositories; (Highest Qualifying Committee is rejecting e-publications as

research work for doctoral dissertations.)

CARLIGH Activities

• A secretariat – meeting place• Voluntary staff –with honorarium• Services offered

– access to e-resource– capacity building– Consultancy services to public for income

generation– technical and other support to members

EULCPriority projects

1. Digital Library Consortia (The Egyptian University Digital Library) — provides access to the international e-resources including citations, abstracts and full text database; E-journals, books, transactions and engineering standards

2. The Electronic Theses and Dissertation Database (The Egyptian Database for Thesis and Dissertation) — The goal is to build a national database for ETDs from the Egyptian universities; a taskforce for ETD metadata standard

3. Electronic Publication: An open access initiative for publishing Arabic academic journals through the Egyptian university libraries portal.

EULCPriority projects

4. Egyptian University Libraries Automation (The Egyptian Union Catalog for Academic and Research Libraries) — The goal is to automate the Egyptian universities’ libraries, (EUL) through building a union catalog.

5. Future Library System Development (Future Library Management System)— The ICTC in EL-Mansoura and EL-Zagazig Universities have built and implemented a library automation system. The EULC cooperates with the ICTC. The goals is to standardize the system to cope with the international standards of library automated system and to generalize it in the automation of the EULC.

Learn more : http://www.eulc.edu.eg/

LELICO Activities

• Joint subscriptions have not been done

• Libraries subscribe individually (this is both a success and not so much a success)

• No common Integrated Library System

• Rate of usage of e-resources has increased

LMBAActivities

• Subscription to databases for Consortium members and other libraries (46 members + 60 public libraries)

• Users training

• Advocacy (©, OA) and information dissemination

• Fund raising

• Knowledge sharing: trainings, consultations, distribution of the information via the internet and mailing list

• International co-operation

Libraries automation and integrated library system are the activities of another consortium (Lithuanian Academic Libraries Consortium for the Maintenance and  Development of an Information Infrastructure for Science and Studies)

LELICOActivities

• Training workshops are successful

• GREENSTONE coordinators have become sub-regional trainers, IP plus FOSS coordinators

• Academics attend OA UNESCO workshop in RSA

• Participate in INASP/Peri programmes

NEICON Activities

• Negotiations and licensing

• Technical support: all resource administration work

• Accounting: money transfer, reports to fiscal bodies

• Paper work: auctions, tenders

• Fundraising: contacts with Ministries

• Advocacy: users, libraries, university cancellors, Ministry officers and Minister

NEICON Activities

• Free trainings and conferences: 60 -70 trainings and 2 conferences annually

• Free trials: 20 - 30 annually

• Online client database: registration, applications, expertise, trials, surveys

• Training Center – now suspended

• National Repository – unsuccessful so far

• Online Bibliometrics Module – very slow progress

TechnologyIdentify what

is needed

Identify what Technology is needed

Identify the costs and options for technology necessary to support the core functions of the consortium, including consortium communications and service delivery (e.g., servers for the consortium web site, social networking functions), or any consortium-provided services for members, such as institutional repositories or library catalogue.

TechnologyEnsure stable

systems and evaluate and upgrade, where applicable

Technology

• Programme Delivery. If the consortium is providing members with any direct technology services, ensure that all systems are running effectively, and that all users are fully trained on how to use the system. If upgrades are required, assess the costs involved, issue requests-for-proposals (if appropriate), and begin to implement systems.

• Internal Infrastructure. Evaluate what upgrades may be necessary to the internal infrastructure (e.g., to communicate with members) to ensure that it is sufficiently robust to ensure effective service delivery and communication.

WORKING GROUP IICREATING THE CONSORTIUM

• How will the planning be handled? Roles and responsibilities – who does what?

• What will be the mission of the consortium?

• What are possible governance models?

• Which joint programmes and services can and should be put into place?

– Appoint chair and rapporteur

– Report back on mission statement and programmes.

Section 6: Membership issues and management

Membership issues 1

• Advantages and disadvantages of different membership types

– Single type (e.g. academic only)

– Multi-type (colleges, special, public libraries…)

• Finalize which types of libraries will qualify to be consortium members (e.g., academic, public, research institutes, special libraries)

•  Create formal membership categories, qualifications and expectations for membership.

Membership issues 2• Once you have defined your mission and goals, you

know what types of members the consortium should have (or you can start the other way around…)

• The funding also defines the membership

– Regional or government agency

– Volunteer organization

– Independent NGO with external funding

• The membership size is to be considered

– Start small and grow organically

– Start with all potentially interested

Membership: annual review

• Annually review membership retention rate as a measure of member satisfaction, and membership categories and pricing to determine if adjustments are necessary for the next fiscal year.

Membership: annual meeting

Conduct annual meetings

Metrics: Information Sources

At least once every two years, conduct a membership survey (and/or focus groups) to:

•determine membership needs and satisfaction with consortium services

•generate ideas for future programs to meet the future needs of members

•accelerate the speed of development and momentum of the consortium

Employ metrics

Employ the success metrics that are described in the strategic planning tip sheet. These metrics are important to monitor the level of progress of your consortium. Publicize programs and services that achieved significant success. Where success has not been achieved, determine if there was a particular factor that impeded success, or whether the lack of success was caused by any intentional changes

in the consortium’s strategic plans.

Hold regular meetings

Hold meetings regularly (either in-person or virtually) with members to ensure they are aware of all services that are available from the consortium.

Follow up with members regularly

 For consortium services that are being under-utilized, conduct telephone, email or other surveys or interviews to determine the cause. Determine whether members need more information about the service or whether the service is no longer valued and can be discontinued.

Stay in contact with members

 Create a regular stream of communications with members through meetings, electronic communications, newsletters, etc.

SECTION 7: FUNDING AND BUDGETING

Funding and Budgeting

• Revenue and funding structures

• Budgeting and financial management

Identify funding needs

Identify the short-term and long-term funding needs of the consortium (e.g., meeting expenses, travel, consultants, staff, technology, communications), establish spending priorities, and determine which needs could be funded over a multi-year period.

Funding and SustainabilityCosts to be covered:

• Operating costs (staff, technology etc)

• External costs (eg licenses, program activities)

• Marketing to and training of staff and users

• Communications: travel, meetings, website

Good practice:

• Charges should not be an obstacle to membership

• Members must receive good return on their investment

Funding Sources for Operations

There are many different models in eIFL:

• Funding by one funder eg ministry

• Funding by hosting institution (operational cost)

• Membership contributions

– Usually an annual charge for participation in consortium

– Support programs of common benefit to most or all members (e.g., operating expenses, infrastructure, training, communications)

– In-kind contributions

– Provide a predictable source of annual income

• Funding agency or foundation

• Other sources of revenue (eg consultancy)

Identify funding modelIdentify the primary sources of funding to sustain the work of the

consortium, e.g.,• Sponsor Financial Support. Identify and select potential

sponsor(s), based in part upon the opportunity to receive sustainable funding (e.g., from a government agency).

• Membership Financial Support. Determine the willingness and

ability of membership to support (at least in part) the ongoing costs of the consortium through dues or fees, and develop a longer-term strategy to increase membership contributions during the transitional step. (See also Tip Sheet: Consortium Financial Support)

• External funds. Determine if and how much funding should be sought from outside of the sponsors and members (e.g., from grants or foundations). If pursuing external funding, write a short statement to describe the need and the potential benefit if the funds are received.

Dues Assessment: Alternatives• “Uniform Contribution” (or “flat rate” or

“fixed assessment”)

• Ability to Pay: Progressive Dues

• Ability to Pay: Tiered Dues

Budgeting

1. Annual check-in

2. Develop a multi-year budget

3. Convey your value to sponsors

4. Ensure members understand their benefits

5. Research external funding

1. Annual check-in: funding needs

On an annual basis, develop a list of funding needs and potential opportunities to obtain funding.

2. Develop a multi-year budget

Develop and maintain a multi-year budget (e.g., a three-year budget) that predicts future revenue and expenses, and delineates and balances one-time and ongoing funding needs.

3. Convey your value to funders

On a regular basis, meet with and provide funders with information (e.g., reports, brochures, emails) to reinforce the value of their funding in the past and to secure their commitment for the next fiscal year.

4. Ensure members understand their benefits

Membership Financial SupportIf the consortium has dues and/or fees,

engage members in a dialog about the importance of those revenue sources to ensure the sustainability of the consortium. If the consortium currently has no dues or fees, discuss their implementation to build ownership and provide sustainable revenue to support ongoing programs and services.

5. Research: external funding • Expand funding sources beyond the initial base.

• Generate and implement an effective multi-year and diversified fundraising plan (i.e., avoid over-reliance on a single source of income).

• Develop new programmes that are geared toward fundable projects

• Develop case statements for these projects

• Develop a list of possible sources to approach for funding.

• Develop a list of potential funding sources for each case statement that can demonstrate the value of the consortium.

• Document successes to build upon to seek additional funding.

ECLAFunding

Membership fees

– Institutions annual membership fees (~$200)

– Goal-oriented transfers from State agencies

• Fees are used for

– EIFL annual membership

– training

– subscription to EIFL resources

CARLIGHFunding

• Membership fees: Yes, used for running the Consortium and Workshops

• Funding model: Flat rate for Full members and half rate for Affiliate members

EULCFunding

• Government and private funding

• Membership fees (used for central office salaries and activities)

LELICOFunding

• Flat rate annual membership fees

• Government grants a modest annual subvention

• Partners sponsor a number of activities

LMBAFunding

• Membership fees (joining fee ~ € 72; annual membership fee ~ € 128 + database processing fee 10-30%)

• Grants for databases (government: Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education and Science – partial funding)

• Projects (EIFL, OSI, British Council Lithuania, Ministry of Culture, the EU-funded project “Opening of research databases for Lithuania”)

NEICONFunding

• No membership fee

• 2 funding sources

– governmental projects (annually about 2000 site licenses on “free resources”)

– service fee collected for subscriptions

• 2008: 268 site licenses• 2011: 454 site licenses

E-resource Cost Sharing

A method to allocate the cost of a resource, so that all members (or an identified subgroup) can redistribute the total expense, in a way that all individual institutions can afford the resource, pay their fair share and benefit

E-resource Cost SharingSingle or hybrid solutions in eIFL consortia:• Size of institution or population served

– Count of full-time equivalent (FTE) students

• Actual usage

– Actual activity from the previous year

• Ability to pay

– Annual expenditures for library or library materials

– Base payments for journal subscriptions

• Equal-share

– Same amount regardless of budget or size

• Other factors

– e.g., proportion of courses taught in English

WORKING GROUP IIIConsortium resources: Members and Money!

• Who will be the members of the consortium? How to reach them and keep them?

• How will the consortium activities be funded – what are the possible models?

– Appoint chair and rapporteur

– Report back on membership structure and funding models

SECTION 8: MARKETING, ADVOCACY, SUSTAINABILITY

Communications, marketing, advocacy

• Organization name, logo, website

• Determine communication tools

• Keep in mind all stakeholders

Organization name, logo, website

• Determine the official name of the consortium

• Create a standard logo for the consortium (which can be just the name of the consortium using a particular type font)

Determine communication tools

• Determine the ongoing methods for communication with consortium members and stakeholders, e.g.,

– Website with RSS feeds

– Email listservs

– Social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis)

– Newsletters and brochures (electronic or in print)

Keep in mind the stakeholdersIf the consortium has external

stakeholders or financial sponsors, engage them in the work of the consortium through regular meetings and by providing them with a regular stream of information (e.g., reports, brochures, emails).

Member engagement

Ensure that members are aware of what the consortium has to offer by developing, implementing and maintaining an effective and comprehensive marketing and communications plan.

Advocacy

1. Develop a communications plan

2. Create social networking plan

Develop a communications plan

Develop and implement an outreach and communications plan to communicate and involve all key stakeholders (e.g., members, sponsors, funders, governmental ministries or agencies, related NGOs). Invite the stakeholders to an informational meeting about the consortium or (if a meeting is impractical) send an informational overview to these individuals and invite their participation.

Create social networking plan

Create a social networking strategic plan to maximize the availability of information, enable effective involvement, and minimize the amount of time required for support.

Consider not only which social media will be most effective in your country, e.g., web site, blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, etc., but also which software platforms would be most beneficial.

(Remember, there are many free and open source software solutions for social networking!)

SponsorshipStrengthen

relationship with sponsors (through effective marketing and demonstrating strong return on investment)

Submit proposals to expand activities

Annual review programsAnnually review all programs and

services against the success metrics that are established in the strategic and operating plans.

Based upon this review, determine whether to continue, modify, or eliminate each existing program and service.

Some Lessons Learned…

• Prioritise goals / activities to achieve them

– What are the most pressing needs?

– Which are shared by all members? Which done separately?

– Which steps / activities will get you there?

• Set realistic and achievable deadlines and milestones

– But then do not let those deadlines slip

– How much can you achieve in the 1st, 2nd year?

– Celebrate your achievements!

Some Lessons Learned…

• Start with an interested and committed membership

– Better to start small and gradually expand

– But keep other stakeholders informed

• Make responsibilities clear

– Who does what? By when?

• Monitor and assess progress

• Communicate and be transparent

ELCAChallenges

• Lack of visibility of ELCA activities

• Closer cooperation with Universities is needed

• Poor knowledge of English language amongst students, academics, librarians (especially in regions)

• Students are not expected to use e-resources

CARLIGH Challenges

• Funding for e-resource subscription and capacity building activities

• Commitment of members & succession planning

• Limited number of subscriptions to databases

• Limited usage of resources

• Much reliance on institutional funding

• Lack of/poor internet connectivity- Polys & COE

EULCChallenges

• Legal procedures for licensing electronic resources which is based on tender procedure requires a lot of paper work.

• This legal procedure impedes/stops the negotiation

• Difficult economic situation during the last few months.

• The lack of decision-making stability and qualified human resources in administration in the last few months.

• Lack of infrastructure in terms of archival data storage and retrieval systems

LELICOChallenges

• Lack of office accommodation

• Lack of permanent staff

• Internet connectivity and ICT capacity at institutional (parent body) & national levels

• Lack of successful model of similar consortium to learn from – at present, at the sub-regional level have different models that are not a good example to benchmark with

LELICO Challenges

• Despite availability of several Open source solutions now, members have made a choice of one ILS that seems to promote cooperation eg with SABINET (skills & experience to be tapped)

• Aware that majority of members need to build capacity before they can to participate meaningfully in LELICO eg to acquire PCs, automate, get Internet, get started

• Library leaders need confidence-building mechanism, eg practical exposure, on-site training

LELICO Challenges

• Unwillingness of most senior librarians to occupy positions of the Executive committee

• LELICO’s duties are voluntary

• Clearly staff are already fully occupied

• Too much reliance on external funding and government subvention

• The present challenge is the likelihood of some libraries who might see no need for LELICO since they subscribe individually

LMBA Challenges

• Public procurement procedures (especially via the online procurement system) with foreign suppliers are often complicated and time consuming

• Costs of databases

NEICON Challenges

In the beginning, there was no money, no authority, no governmental support and no knowledge in e-resources.

We received

• initial support from EIFL and OSI and later on from Ford Foundation

• experience and contacts via former ISF and OSI activities good will and ambitions

NEICON Challenges

Main problems and obstacles now: lack of stability

• changes in political situation: in transition and developing countries, each change in the governing structures leads to changes in politics and values and thus in state programs. We can one day lose governmental support.

• changes in governing structures in the universities.

• changes in economical situation in the country as a whole and in universities in particular

NEICON Challenges

• Money: to raise own money or/and to get money from funders

• These are two different approaches with different aims and goals and people. Consortium has to choose its way or both ways. We use boths. Similarly to Lithuania…

• To follow both ways you have to have: ideas, knowledge, projects and e-resources themselves.

CARLIGH Success drivers

• Hard work with no monetary reward

• Accountability and transparency

• Good communication skills

• Partners and linkages

EULCSuccess drivers

• The position of the Egyptian consortium central office in the main offices of the ministry of higher education gives it a big push and power.

• The activities which the consortium has been implementing are priorities in the universities.

• There was a real need for al the activities executed by the EULC.

LMBASuccess drivers

• Cooperation with EIFL

• Motivated and competent team

• Good relationship with the Ministries, Research Council (we have a good reputation)

LMBA Lessons learned

• Professionalism and high competence

• Good reputation

• Awareness about needs of the members and users

• Services meet the members need and value

• Advertise and promote activities

• Seek for improvement and development

• Good communication

• Sharing the knowledge and experience

• Learning from colleagues

LMBA: “Together we are the POWER”

• LMBA became a strategic partner in scholarly communication

• Stakeholders trust us, we have very close relations with academic community

• Researchers get much more information

• Librarians learned to work together, react quickly

• We have much more knowledge

• We are active nationally and internationally

• We save member libraries a lot of money

NEICON Lessons learned

For a consortium to be alive and successful, it should be

– sustainable– visible– recognized– active

To be alive, a consortium needs money and the right people to work and to guide it. Then everything goes smoothely.