Consortia Taking Responsibility for their Technology Ecosystem: Cultivating Agency with Emerging Community Owned Solutions

Abstract

In an era where market consolidation is becoming the norm for proprietary library content and technology services, library consortia are left wondering what they can do to mitigate or counteract the resulting negative consequences. This article explores challenges with respect to market consolidation, and the approaches taken in recent collaborative community-owned projects, including CC-PLUS and FOLIO, in which the authors are involved. These projects may impede market consolidation effects and serve as examples, providing new models for consortial collaboration and those interested in cultivating agency in the provision of core library technology services.

KEYWORDS:

• consortia
• agency
• open source software
• business models
• collaboration