Research, Leadership, and Resource-Sharing Initiatives: The Role of Local Library Consortia in Access to Medical Information

A consortium as a formal partnership of libraries is very helpful in institutionalizing practices, building capacity and facilitating access to information. The needs of special libraries cannot be fully addressed by regional organization because of its wide scope, thus, a consortium for specific group is deemed useful. This book chapter aims to describe the development of a local consortium and its role in building a culture of research, creating dynamic leadership and discussing how resource-sharing scheme goes beyond traditional inter-library loan. Using focus group discussion, the consortium members thresh out issues and concerns where collaborative research, dynamic leadership and resource-sharing pave way to enhance access to medical information.