The Organisation of the FinELib Consortium

The National Electronic Library is part of the services of the National Library of Finland for the Finnish library network.

The organisation of FinELib ensures that all interest groups are represented in the decision-making process and development of the services through three different groups: the steering group, the consortium group and the subject-specific expert groups.

The Steering Mechanism of the Consortium

The steering group, made up of funding body representatives from member organisations and the Ministry of Education (senior managers and administrators, rectors), is responsible for determining the policy of the consortium and evaluating the impact, efficiency and effectiveness of the work of FinELib. The consortium group makes proposals for the National Library and the steering group.

The subject-specific expert groups make prioritised proposals for new acquisitions for the National Library. The expertise of the representants from the member organisations benefits the whole consortium and its development through the expert groups.

The obligations of both the National Library and the member organisations are defined in the service agreement which is signed by all consortium members.

The Main Principles of Consortium Membership

• Organisations will join the consortium as a whole
• Members of staff and walk-in users have the right to access and use the licensed e-resources (if the organisation runs a library open to all, the library users also have the right to use the resources)
  
• Access to the licensed material is provided by the use of IP address authentication. The subscribing organisation provides a list of IP addresses to the service provider through FinELib.
  
• The FinELib service unit negotiates licenses for the purposes of research, teaching and learning but not for commercial use. The terms of use are defined in license agreements. The material may not be redistributed to other organisations unless permitted in the agreement.
• The license agreements take effect January 1st. Organisations can join an agreement at the beginning of each year.
• To join the FinELib Consortium organisations have to sign a service agreement with the National Library. Organisations pay the license fees for each e-resource they subscribe to.
  
• In some cases the price of a resource is determined by the number of potential users. In the research institute category the number of users includes, as a rule, the academic staff excluding the technical support and the customer service staff.