Perceived features and their relevance to initiate a consortium of technical libraries in UAE

Abstract

This article specifies upon the perception of need of consortium, perception of features required for consortium and their relevance to initiate the Library Consortium in UAE. This article elaborates upon the perception of need of consortium, required features and their relevance for consortium to initiate the Library Consortium in UAE. The authors obtained the data from respondents to find answer for key research questions such as (i) To what extent the LIS professionals in Science and Engineering libraries feel the need for consortium?; (ii) What is their perception of relevance or importance of functions/features for consortium?; and (iii) If such a consortium initiated in UAE what are the immediate or important feature that they would like to include. The data from 25 institutions offering Science, Engineering and Management programs were considered as target population. 122 LIS professionals working in these 25 institutions were considered as target respondents. Of 122 questionnaires distributed, the study received 102 responses resulting in 83.60 % response rate. The response was certainly inspiring and pleasing. A cumulated spreadsheet containing 102 records was prepared for the analysis purpose. The authors have elaborated the perceived need for consortium, features required and their relevance for initiating the consortium.