Around the World to an ELibrary in a Private University: Introducing Gladzor Management University

Date01 December 2004
Pages30-31
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410577596
Published date01 December 2004
AuthorRafayel Harutyunyan
Subject MatterLibrary & information science
Around the World to an ELibrary in a Private
University: Introducing Gladzor Management
University
Rafayel Harutyunyan
30 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 10 2004, pp. 30-31, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410577596
In January 2004 the first Digital
Library in Armenian history opened in
post-Soviet times with the formation of
Gladzor Management University.
Established initially 14 years ago the
institution has now moved to a new
building with modern equipment and
design specifically planned for
educational purposes. The original
institution founded in 1282 as the
University of Gladzor where it became
a cultural and scientific centre of the
entire region of Syunik and where it
was renowned for the art of book
illumination and miniatures. The
university was closed and in 1984 the
700th anniversary of Gladzor
University was celebrated in Armenia.
The present day university bearing the
name of its medieval predecessor was
licensed in 1991 and accredited in 2001.
The web presence at www.gladzor.am
notes its history and current programs.
The consortium of eLibraries was
organized in Armenia in 2003 with the
financial support of the Open Society
Institute (OSI) and now includes more
than 40 scientific and educational
libraries. Libraries and other
information centers have been heavily
affected by the difficulties during the
transition period of the whole post-
Soviet period. Scientific, technical and
medical centers and educational
institutions are the institutions and
organizations that especially suffered in
this respect.
The situation in Armenia, in fact, has
been transformed into an information
crisis. Among the major media
accessible to the public in Armenia are
radio, TV and press. This translates into
a serious access dilemma. Current
professional scientific, technical,
medical, educational and other needed
information, however, can be obtained
mainly through the internet only
through highly-priced information
services. Hundreds of publishers acting
in this field are raising subscription
prices from year to year both for paper
and for electronic versions of their
publications. Obviously, the
overwhelming majority of institutions
in Armenia are unable to afford
individual subscriptions to such highly
priced electronic publications.
The Electronic Library Consortium
of Armenia (eLCA) was formed to
facilitate a response to overcoming this
present crisis in the sphere of electronic
information in Armenia. One of the
main goals of eLCA is to assist its
member institutions in gaining
affordable access to electronic
scientific, medical, educational and
other kinds of information resources by
means of negotiating with publishers
and information suppliers and using the
assistance of international foundations,
benefactors and state support. eLCA
closely collaborates with the Armenian
Library Consortium and is a member of
eIFL.net international consortium. At
the same time, eLCA supports the users
from its member institutions with
training, workshops and other activities
all of this to organize a more efficient
use of available electronic resources.
Gladzor Managemant University
Digital Library pays serious attention to
the needs of young scientists and will
launch corresponding activities to give
them required information support and
backing to do their work. Current
academic programs are concentrated in
law, foreign languages, international
relations, economics, international
journalism and information technology.
Since local professional information
resources in Armenia are not plentiful
we mainly will use international
community resources, particularly, in
the field of science and education.
Current resources available by the
eLibrary of Gladzor Management
University include:
.AMC Digital Library.
.Emerald Databases in Business and
Engineering.
.EBSCO Publishing.
.InfoTrac.
.Cafe Group.
The main focus of eIFL net is to
negotiate affordable subscriptions with
electronic information vendors
(publishers) on a multi-consortial basis
for its member countries. In the scope
of eIFL, for example, access has been
arranged to the electronic resources of
EBSCO Publishing with more than
8,000 full-text e-journals reflecting
about 500 publishers in Europe and the
USA. The eIFL Sci&Tech program has
provided eLCA with the electronic
resources of some important scientific
publishers and aggregators, including
the American Physical Society,
Institute of Physics, BioOne,
Cambridge University Press, HighWire
and ProQuest content.
eLCA also uses resources arranged
by its affiliation with INTAS (see
www.bioecomed.am/intas/#INTAS_E-
Library). Formed as the Independent
International Association within the
European Community for its Member
States and like minded countries to
preserve and promote the scientific
potential of the NIS partner countries
through East-West Scientific
cooperation. The INTASD eLibrary
Infrastructure Action program is
dedicated to providing access to
scientific literature, based on electronic
delivery. This program in Armenia is
implemented by the International
Network for the Availability of
Scientific Publications.
Gladzor Managment University with
the support of the eLCA consortium

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