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Academic Library Directors' Perceptions Of Joining A Large Library Consortium Sharing An Integrated Library System: A Descriptive Survey, Dennis Krieb

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The collective holdings of CARLI’s (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois) “I-Share” catalog total approximately 32 million items. It is the third largest academic catalog in the United States, however only 76 of CARLI’s 148 academic libraries participate in I-Share. This descriptive survey examined the factors that influenced a CARLI academic library director’s decision to join, or not join, I-Share’s integrated library system. Seventy-seven of the 145 CARLI library directors sampled completed the web-based survey. This represented a 53.1% response rate.

The framework for the survey was designed around three sections; advantages, disadvantages, and obstacles to participating in …