Contributions of Kenya Library and Information Service Consortium (KLISC) in Expanding Access to Information Resources: Case Study of St. Pauls University, Limuru, Kenya

Abstract

It is not possible for a library to hold full stock of information resources or procure all information which may be in demand by its users. To solve this problem, library cooperation started long ago such as interlibrary loan, document delivery, library network, etc. Consortia are commonly formed to increase the purchasing ability of collaborating institutions to expand the resources availability and offer automated services. In Kenya, there is KLISC which has carried out commendable activities to support research in Kenya. Kenya has over 600 institutions but only 112 are KLISC members and also very little has been documented about the contributions KLISC has had to the member institutions. The study therefore tried to identify the contributions that KLISC membership has had to its member institutions. The study objective was to assess the contributions of KLISC towards access to information resources. Descriptive survey design was used and a population comprising of the University Librarian and post graduate students from Faculty of Theology. Through purposive sampling and simple random sampling technique, a sample size of 51 respondents was obtained; the University Librarian and 50 post graduate students. The study established that the respondents were familiar with a few of KLISC’s databases. The study also found out that out of the 58 databases provided through KLISC, the respondents were only familiar with and used 4 databases. Poor ICT infrastructures and poor internet connectivity were the major challenges. The study therefore recommends that KLISC together with the information managers promote the Consortium services and products to the non-members in Kenya and also create awareness of the various databases to information users.

Keywords: Information resources, Library, Library consortium, Library cooperation.

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