Funding the electronic library

[Peter Graham, RUL]

From:  Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries

>There have been numerous articles on concepts, direction, and should
>convert to an academic electronic/digital library facility.  How is
>this going to
>be funded?  Does anyone have or know of a very good definitive
>article on funding concepts for academic electronic libraries?

For those of you interested in how government at your back might not be so
bad, you might look at "The Electronic Libraries Programme" Web pages at
<URL:http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/elib/>, and the following excerpted text:

              
"In 1993, an investigation into how to deal
              with the pressures on library resources caused
              by the rapid expansion of student numbers and
              the world-wide explosion in academic
              knowledge and information was undertaken by
              the Joint Funding Council's Libraries Review
              Group, chaired by Sir Brian Follett. This
              investigation resulted in the famous Follett
              Report. 

One of the key conclusions of this report was "The exploitation of IT is
essential
              to create the effective library service of the
              future". As a consequence, the Higher
              Education Funding Bodies in the UK invited
              proposals for projects which would "transform
              the use and storage of knowledge in higher
              education institutions". 

#15 million was allocated to the "Electronic Libraries
              Programme", managed by the Joint Information
              Systems Committee on behalf of the funding
              bodies. Several hundred proposals were
              eventually received; out of these, 30 were
              initially announced in July 1995, lasting up to 3
              years in duration. Since then, several other
              projects have been approved, taking the total
              to 37 by October 1995, with more to follow. " 


Peter Graham    psgraham at gandalf.rutgers.edu    Rutgers University Libraries
169 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08903   (908)445-5908; fax (908)445-5888
              <URL:http://aultnis.rutgers.edu/pghome.html>