Abstract

Author(s): V. J.Suseela

The technological advancements have made radical changes in the conventional system of information processing/dissemination. The role of consortia is highly remarkable in distributing scholarly e-resources to institutions in huge quantities. Paper examines the usage pattern of the UGC Infonet Digital Library Consortium 16 full text databases in relation to the usefulness of the resources in University of Hyderabad, India for the period 2010 -2012. The findings indicate that 92% of usage of titles (e-resources) wherein 9 databases were utilized 100%. The analytical study indicates that 0.26% of titles contributed to 30% of usage, 1.57% of titles resulting in 27% of downloads, whereas 98.17% titles yield only 43% of usage, which means hardly 2% of titles are producing for more than 50% of usage and nearly 98% of titles do not result in 50% of usage. Based on the results, it is suggested that consortia or academic institutions need to identity the core resources and assess the levels of usage/usefulness of peripheral titles as well conducting an in-depth survey/study to mark the changing users preferences before subscribing/unsubscribing expensive databases for the institutions and also to know the gaps in the system.