A study of consortium models for e-books in university libraries in Korea

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the Korean consortia models generally and discuss how the consortium governing body, Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS), manages the e-book consortium effectively from the Korean perspective. Design/methodology/approach - This research is conducted with overall consortia models of online resources by KERIS. Over several years of modeling it has contrived to develop a few consortia modeling patterns in Korea and assess their effectiveness on collection management. The e-book consortium modeling process entailed the following: identifying the appropriate consortium model, sampling the consortium size for pricing models and selecting the criteria for e-book title selection. Findings - Two types of e-book consortium models are presented. One is the subscription model and the other is the purchasing model. Both sharing and purchasing options are quite cost-effective for Korean universities since they try to balance the digital and paper collections. The consortium model for e-books in Korean universities was successful and fit into the conservative collection management in Korea for academic use. Also, perpetual access and purchase model is preferred rather than annual access and lease model. Originality/value - Online resources including e-books need a sustainable model for continuous access due to budget constraints. Considering the life-span of information we need to find the appropriate business and service models for all the resources available online. Various criteria for consortia have been presented. No previous research has been conducted on the nationwide consortium model in Korean universities.