Philippine library consortia: Priorities and perspectives

This paper explores library consortia in the Philippines, particularly focusing on academic libraries. It considered the current state of consortia in the country in terms of their strategic initiatives, the services they offer, the challenges they face, the sources of their funding, staffing, and how the members communicate with each other. It likewise examined the developmental stage of the consortia based on Shachaf’s five-stage lifecycle. Results revealed that the primary reason why libraries come together remains to be resource sharing and as such, it (including inter- library loan (ILL) and document delivery service (DDS) continues to be the most predominant service being offered by all and regarded as the most valuable aspect of cooperation. Majority of library consortia in the Philippines have reached the maturation stage and a few of them are now in the meta-consortium creation stage. Sources of funding were limited to only three-- the parent organization, income- generating activities, and membership fees. The major challenge that they currently face is funding