International Coalition of Library Consortia

Swedish University and Research Libraries
BIBSAM
Website: http://www.kb.se/bibsam/

Brief description

BIBSAM's overriding goal is to improve the provision of information for higher education and research, primarily by taking measures to promote
a) the use and development of the resources of Swedish research libraries; and b) the access to, and use of, information in any format.

One of BIBSAM`s most important tasks is to develop and administer the system of so-called national resource libraries . This is based on the principle that a number of central research libraries receive special funds to assume a national responsibility to provide better and more efficient information for research and development and higher education in the different subject areas.

Legal structure

Government-supported

Primary functions

• Collections sharing
• Electronic content licensing
• Electronic content loading/presentation
• Interlibrary loan/document delivery
• Training
• Union lists/shared online catalogs
• Other: Administers and develops a system of national resource libraries; performs special studies in the library and information area; supports
  development projects of general interest; collects and analyses statistics of - and, evaluates - library services; supports the production and use of standards; monitors legislation of relevance to the library community; promotes co-operation between research libraries, public libraries, archives, museums; supports international library co-operation.

Number and type of member libraries

71 libraries are eligible to join the licensing consortium
39 University- and college libraries
24 Other research libraries
8 Libraries at museums
48 libraries actively participates as members of current licenses

Last updated August 2003