LAW LIBRARY CONSORTIA

by Sexton, Nicky A.

Law library consortia are comprised of academic, public, or private law libraries, or an eclectic mix of these types of libraries. This paper describes library consortia generally—explaining why libraries join a consortium and what the advantages of membership are—and law library consortia in particular. Two law library consortia, NELLCO and COSELL, are compared as examples of how two successful consortia provide different services to their member libraries. The results of two surveys that were taken for this paper are presented and examined. The author concludes that while law library consortia are distinctive from other library consortia, the aims of all library consortia are generally the same, namely to share resources to the benefit of all members, to reduce costs, and to improve services to patrons.