Whenever German librarians talk about consortia in the presence of lawyers
(even if they are libarians themselves) they meet with vehement protest. In
German the legal term „consortium“ is restricted to a relatively narrow
meaning. In „Meyers neues Lexikon“ from 1993 it is defined as: „Bank merger
for stock exchange dealings and credit transactions ...“ And from the same
source the definition of consortial business: „Syndicate business for which
several members (mostly banks) join up for a consortium. Reasons for forming
a consortium are: 1. Overstraining of the financial resources of each individual
consortium member, 2. spreading of risks ...“ 1
While risk-spreading is not really an issue for libraries, their financial
resources are undoubtedly overstrained. There are three reasons: the pricing
policy – that is to say the heavy annual price rise – of the publishers, the
rapidly increasing number of academic publications not likely to slow down in
the foreseeable future as well as the expectations and wishes of our users and
customers, the scientific community. Therefore, the term „purchasing
association“ may be the correct one from a (German) legal point of view. As
in many similar cases the term was adopted from an Anglo-American background
with a much broader meaning: „Partnership, association. Now more
specifically an association of business, banking or manufacturing organizations.“
2 In Germany the term „consortium“ is now widely used for joint
actions of libraries
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