As of 22 April 2009 this website is 'frozen' in time — see the current IFLA websites
This old website and all of its content will stay on as archive – http://archive.ifla.org
In 1983, "The Documentation and Information Center for Universities" was established by the "Turkish Higher Education Council" according to the model of "British Library and Documentation Supply Center." This center started with 10,000 journal subscriptions and gave printed material based document delivery services to universities and research institutes. Their annual journal subscription was now reduced to 2,900.
On the other hand, there was a rapid development in telecommunications and Internet services in Turkey in recent years. The first Internet connection was established in 1993. The number of the Internet hosts are increasing rapidly." The Turkish Scientific and Research Council", in their report on "Creation of the National Innovation System: 1993 - 2003" gave high priority to information services in science and technology. In 1996, the Turkish Higher Education Council and Turkish Scientific Research Council created together the ULAK-BIM and U-BIM "National Academic Network and Knowledge Center" with to replace "The Documentation and Information Center for Universities" in Ankara.
After connecting the new universities to Internet, the process of constructing of a university library consortium has started. Because of the very heterogeneous structure of Turkish university libraries, it seems reasonable to create regional library consortia, starting with the big cities mentioned above. The consortia activities will first start in the university libraries between higher level of library automation and electronic services. The "National Academic Network and Knowledge Center" and big university libraries will continue print and electronic ILL services to other libraries.
The geographic distribution and heterogeneous structure of Turkish university libraries enforce consortial subscription for electronic journals and databases. One of the immediate task is to build up a perspective on consortial licensing and purchasing of electronic journals.
There is now an intensive activity to try many known electronic journals services and data bases and evaluate their costs. The aim is to reduce the duplication of printed materials and to promote the joint ownership models for electronic resources.
It is very important for Turkish Library consortium to create a stable funding environment, which is not affected by the economic instabilities and political decisions. The consortium also aims to standardize the user services and simplify administration across the consortium.