FinELib consortium centrally acquires electronic materials for its member organisations. Consortium members include Finnish universities, universities of applied sciences, research institutes and public libraries (see the list of consortium members). Each member decides independently what materials to order through the consortium. The consortium’s service unit, the FinELib office, is located in the National Library. The FinELib office negotiates the agreements and pricing, collects orders from consortium members, signs the agreements and invoices licence fees from consortium members.

Important considerations to be taken into account regarding materials acquired by FinELib consortium include:

• Each consortium member makes an independent decision about their subscription.
• Each subscriber acquires the materials for the entire organisation, not for eg. single departments.
• Authentication is based on IP addresses.
• Higher education institutions and research institutes must be given the right for remote use.
• Materials acquired by the consortium must fulfil the licensing principles of the consortium.
• Subscriber specific usage statistics must be provided, preferably according to COUNTER Code of Practice.

Pricing

The FinELib consortium does not charge commission on e-materials acquired through the consortium. Members pay the price determined by the publisher or the agent for the materials. With regard to journal packages, the cost division model of the consortium can be used, where the overall price of the e-materials will be redistributed within the consortium among the subscribers.

You are free to base your product pricing on the consortium members user amounts.

The invoicing is done centrally by the FinELib office, so you can send one invoice for FinELib consortium.

New materials

Every year, consortium members select some new materials for consortium negotiations. The materials are selected by a vote in which all consortium member organisations may participate.

If you wish to market your products to members of the FinELib consortium, you can fill in the material presentation form. The information is available for consortium members for one year. Marketing information is meant especially to support the consortium's own acquisitions, but the members may also propose that materials marketed through this channel be accepted as new consortium materials.