A New Library Consortia: a view from Ireland

Abstract

installations in key business areas. These areas include student registration, personnel, nancial administration and library management. The Institutes involved in the MIS Project, through an MIS Project Consortium Board (and a previous body called the Project Steering Committee), control and govern the MIS Project. All Institutes involved in the MIS Project are represented on the MIS Project Consortium Board. As with all projects, the MIS Project is a one-time unique opportunity to do something that has not been done before, within specied resources, constraints and objectives. Recognition of the need to build on the advantages of commonality is an underlying reason for adopting a centralised approach to the implementation and development of these software installations. The MIS Libraries Project provides centralised management services for all of the implementations in Institute Libraries. The Project offers a complete solution for the Institute Libraries from software and server hardware acquisition through to training and implementation resources. It has also devised an implementation plan and methodology to assist Libraries. The Institutes are geographically dispersed but share a common legislative framework. 2 The MIS Project began in 1993 and is funded by Ireland’s Department of Education and Science. The member Institutes come from diverse backgrounds, are often in competition with each other and do not necessarily share common ambitions. All are governed by similar legislation and government policy which focuses their work on the delivery of technically oriented training. Institutes were originally called Regional Technical Colleges. The early Colleges were founded in the late 1960s and were managed by local educational boards. Legislation in the 1990s conferred autonomy on the Colleges in relation to the management of their own affairs. Because of the nature of their training, Institutes have been credited with providing the workforce competencies that have fuelled Ireland’s oft called ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy. 3 The common legislative framework inaugurated in the early 1990s has provided a potential framework for the development of common approaches and policies. In this regard the MIS 1 The Institutes of Technology are Athlone, Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway-Mayo, Let