Research on the Development of China Industry University Library Alliances ()
1. Introduction
The library alliances of industry university (LAIU) are an important part of the university library alliances (ULAS), and it is indispensable for the development of the Chinese university library alliances (CULAS). There are mainly six representatives of LAIU in China, whose general features are to emphasize the professionalism of the industry. The general task of the LAIU is to build the document information resources (DIR) and the consulting service sharing mechanism, develop diverse and multi-faceted training and exchanges of librarians, and expand collaboration and cooperation with other relevant alliances and organizations. The LAIU make greater contributions to the development of national professional disciplines.
2. Development Status
There are mainly six representatives of LAIU in China, as shown in Table 1. First of all, the “National Foreign Language College Library Alliance (NFLCLA)”, which was established in May 2009 by the Beijing Foreign Studies University Library, Shanghai International Studies University Library and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Library ( Chen, 2012), has 20 member libraries (ML) all over the country. At the end of 2010, the NFLCLA has become the first cross-regional virtual shared domain service center of China Academic Library & Information System (CALIS). The NFLCLA aims to strengthen cooperation and exchanges (CE) between libraries of Chinese foreign language colleges, realize resource sharing (RS), and create a high-quality document guarantee and service platform for the readers of Chinese foreign language colleges. With the strong support of the CALIS Center (located at Peking University, responsible for the CALIS operation management), the NFLCLA officially released the “National Foreign Language College Library Alliance Portal” in November 2011.
Secondly, the “National Normal University Library Alliance” established on November 26, 2011, is composed of 10 national key normal universities (Including Beijing Normal University (NU), Northeast NU, East China NU, Central China NU, Shaanxi NU, Hunan NU, South China NU, Nanjing NU, Capital NU), which has 91 ML and six business centers, including resource construction, information service, technology application, librarian training, academic research and exchange, and cultural construction, and promote the comprehensive cooperation (CC) and development of normal university libraries ( Sun, 2015).
Third, in order to improve service capacity and level of Chinese universities libraries of finance and economics, and actively guarantee and support the discipline construction (DC), talent training and social services, in September 2017, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Library (FEL), Zhejiang University of FEL, University of International Business and Economics Library, Southwestern
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Table 1. The main six representatives of LAIU in China.
University of FEL, Dongbei University of FEL, Harbin University of Commerce Library, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (EL) Library, Central University of FEL, and Beijing Technology and Business University Library, jointly initiated the “China Financial Education Resource Sharing Alliance (CFERSA)”. Based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, the CFERSA closely focuses on the development goals of colleges and universities, promotes the CE of China’s financial university libraries, and realizes the self-construction, co-construction, and open sharing of financial education resources ( Yang, 2019). The CFERSA currently has 41 governing units, and the first chairman and secretary-general unit is the Shanghai University of FEL. In September 2018, the CFERSA and Sichuan Province “Double First-class” University Library Construction Alliance signed a strategic cooperation agreement.
Again, in order to promote the self-construction, co-construction, sharing, and open sharing of the literature information resources (LIR) of political and legal institutions (PLI) across the country, to promote CC in the field of legal literature and information among universities and other related institutions, and to help universities and colleges, based principles of “sharing”, “cooperation and win-win” and “equality and mutual benefit”, China University of Political Science and Law Library (PSLL), Zhongnan University of EL Library, Southwest University of PSLL, East China University of PSLL, Northwest University of PSLL and Beijing Baizhi Share Technology Co., Ltd. decided to jointly initiate the establishment of the “China Legal Document Information Sharing Alliance (CLDISA)”. The content of the network sharing platform (SP) construction of Chinese legal LIR mainly includes: the full-text database of postgraduate dissertations of the alliance unit, the characteristic database information portal, the commercial database information portal, the network communication platform for librarians, and the knowledge base. The CLDISA will help DC and open sharing of the national PLI’s LIR, and continue to promote CC.
Finally, the ML of the Petroleum University Library Alliance include China University of Petroleum (East China) ( Liu, Hang, & Wu, 2017), China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Southwest Petroleum University, Daqing Petroleum Institute, Yangtze University, Xi’an Shiyou University, Chongqing University of Science and Technology ( Lian, 2011). The China Coal University Library Alliance (CCULA) was established in September 2014, whose purpose is to intensify the cooperation between domestic coal university libraries, better operate the open sharing mechanism of books and literature resources (LR), and lead and promote the joint efforts of various coal university libraries. The CCULA website is jointly established by 16 coal universities across the country (including China University of Mining and Technology, Liaoning Technical University, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Henan University of Technology, etc.), with technical support provided by Chaoxing Company. It is a domestic coal university library resource SP. The CCULA aims to strengthen the CE among the libraries of coal colleges and universities across the country, and realize the joint procurement, cooperation and co-construction, RS, and copyright licensing of the special LR of the college libraries in the alliance, so as to improve the books of the coal colleges and universities ( Xu, Song, & Jia, 2017). The China Coal University Digital Library is the RS platform of the alliance, which contains the collective resources of the universities in the alliance and can realize one-stop retrieval of books, journals, newspapers, dissertations, conference papers, and various documents.
3. The Organization
The LAIU in China generally consists of the member assembly, the council, the executive council, various business centers and the secretariat. The member assembly is a plenary meeting of the ML of the alliance, whose responsibilities are to review the alliance’s work plan and reports, discuss the construction and development of the alliance, study the important policies of the alliance’s operation, and organize the work seminars and academic exchanges (AE) of the ML. The Alliance Council is generally the highest decision-making body of the alliance，which is responsible for formulating alliance development strategies, making decisions on major issues in alliance construction, researching and deciding alliance-related policies and regulations, electing the president and vice chairman of the alliance, and deciding on the convening and topics of the alliance membership meeting. The Standing Council of the Alliance is a permanent body during the inter-sessional period of the Alliance Council and is responsible to the Council. It is responsible for submitting topics for discussion to the council, implementing the resolutions of the council, and presiding over the operation of the alliance when the council is not in session. The alliance’s executive council is composed of the chairman, vice-chairmen, and standing directors. There are several business centers under the alliance to carry out work and research such as resource construction, information services (IS), technology applications, librarian training, academic research and exchanges, etc. The secretariat is the daily office of the alliance, responsible for the organization and coordination of the operation of the alliance, platform management, website construction, fund management and file preservation.
4. The Target Task
The first is to continuously promote the co-construction and sharing (CCS) of DIR, so as to boost the comprehensive construction of the alliance. For this purpose, the “Alliance” has completed the following tasks: built a joint catalog (JC) based on paper documents; excavated various digital resources of ML; focused on the self-built characteristic resources of ML, and accomplished sharing of document resources through document delivery (DD) and interlibrary loan.
The second is to promote cooperation and sharing of IS, and enhance the service level and capabilities of ML, and establish a linkage service mechanism for related discipline information resources, carry out information of literacy education and training, exchanges and cooperation (EC), jointly develop relevant courses, and share relevant training resources.
The third is to build a support system for alliance technical cooperation service. They establish a workflow for obtaining resources permitted by copyright, realize the docking with the unified authentication system of each library, and gradually realize the functions of one-stop retrieval, online browsing, and DD of the resources of the alliance ML at different levels. They also strengthen the work EC of the information technology departments of the ML of the alliance, jointly develop and apply technologies, coordinately solve technical problems, and realize the sharing of technical resources.
The fourth is to promote the training and professional development of ML. They carry out systematic regular training of librarians by subject, region, type, and multiple channels. Relying on the alliance website, they develop a training platform, release training courses, develop training courseware, and realize the CCS of training resources. They establish a database of training experts and training subjects, form and improve training evaluation and feedback mechanisms, and explore the integration of regular training with the development of the talent team of ML and the career development of librarians.
5. Conclusion
Although the reasons for the establishment of LAIU in China are different, they have similar organizational structures and the same mission goals. The establishment of LAIU in China has played an important role in promoting RS, CE, and AE among professional university libraries, which often have the same or similar professions, and they also have the same characteristics in the storage of LR, so it is easier to reach cooperation.