International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC): Exploring the Diversity and Strength of Participating Library Consortia.

In this era of Cyberage, the information requirements of the users have grown so immensely that no individual library can fulfill their information demands on its own. This has urged the need for cooperation between libraries and information centers for sharing of their resources and information through networking. Thus consortia are considered as a vital move towards library cooperation. A library consortium combines the purchasing power of its members and thus helps to fulfill the requirements of users of all member libraries to greater extent. In a short span of time, numerous consortia have been formed all over the globe. With enormous increase in number of consortia, communication among the various consortia has become critical. Thus, a consortium of consortia was formed in the USA, known as the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) (Huarng & yu, 2011). The paper explores the consortia of different countries participating in ICOLC. Various features (viz., number of consortia, types and number of libraries participating, legal status and services provided) of participating consortia are keenly studied to have the in-depth study. It is observed that about 55 countries are participating in ICOLC and US is the major contributor (48.53%) as per the number of consortia. All types of libraries viz, academic, public, school and special are taking part in the consortia. These consortia vary in their legal status few are national while some are run by non-profit organizations while few others are administered by co-operative bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]