The Impact of Consortial Purchasing on Library Acquisitions: The Turkish Experience

Turkish university and research libraries have been cooperating for 20 years for the primary purpose of sharing printed materials such as books and journal articles. This well-established effort had become insufficient in the changing environment, which is shifting more and more toward electronic resources. The need for better management of tight library budgets and for better site license negotiations appeared as two of the main motivating factors in the formation of the Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS). ANKOS was formed in 2000 with the participation of 12 university libraries. Over the past three years, the number of member libraries has increased to 70. While ANKOS is evolving into a national organization, the member libraries have started seeing ANKOS as a critical component of their acquisitions process. ANKOS today is leveraging what each library is trying to accomplish in terms of subscribing to more electronic resources for the lowest price. This article studies how ANKOS is affecting individual libraries’ decision-making regarding their investment in electronic resources. A survey was conducted among member libraries to answer questions such as have they experienced a change in the expenditure of their funds; are they getting better value for their money; is ANKOS helping them to sign more suitable contracts; is it helping them to overcome the language barrier with vendors; are the fair use principles understood better by librarians as well as users. The findings are analyzed and illustrated with statistical data