ANKOS and its dealings with vendors

Abstract

The Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) was formally created in 2001 following joint licensing projects by four libraries in 1999 and twelve in 2000. The consortium has grown to encompass eighty-nine libraries in 2005, and the number of its contracts has increased to twenty-five. Members include Turkish university libraries and research libraries attached to hospitals and government offices. A voluntary association, ANKOS is run by a Steering Committee composed of the directors of nine member libraries with the help of staff members from those libraries. The first agreements were for print+e-access for journals and for an aggregator database, and these were mostly informal subscription arrangements. An early activity was the development of a model Turkish National Site License. That license now forms the basis for negotiations with vendors, which culminate in formal license agreements. Beginning in 2004, ANKOS contracts are for electronic-only access and are often for multiple years.