TIRUCHY/CHENNAI: The e-resource consortium model proposed by Anna University in 2024 to provide digital access to academic content, including e-books and journals, for engineering students of constituent and affiliated colleges has been shelved due to poor reception from colleges, senior officials in the higher education department said.
The proposal aimed to offer access to over 10,000 e-books, 3,000 international e-journals, interactive learning material and explanatory videos to engineering students across 440 colleges affiliated to the university. Students were expected to pay a fee of Rs 500 per semester, the funds of which were to be pooled through a consortium model to procure resources centrally.
The initiative, however, failed to gain momentum, with only around 20 colleges opting to pay the subscription in the past year. The limited participation made the model financially unviable, officials said. "As the required number of colleges did not join the consortium, it was not possible to pool sufficient funds and procure quality resources. The money collected from participating colleges will be refunded," a senior higher education department official said.
Expressing disappointment over the proposal being shelved, faculty members from constituent colleges said that it could have addressed long-standing gaps in library infrastructure. A professor from Anna University, Tiruchy, on condition of anonymity, said, "Libraries in constituent colleges are not as modern as those in the main campus. This e-consortium model would have bridged that gap by giving students access to updated digital resources."
A faculty member from another constituent college said the consortium would have had academic benefits stretching beyond access to books and journals. "If the e-consortium had taken off, research scholars and students could have used modern plagiarism-detection tools. Such facilities are already standard in the NITs and the IITs. It would also have supported NBA and NAAC accreditation processes and contributed to improving NIRF rankings," the professor noted.
Meanwhile, a professor from an Anna University constituent college in Madurai pointed out that student engagement with libraries itself remains limited. "Only about 30-40% of students actively use libraries. Spending money on new digital resources would mostly benefit research scholars and faculty. For regular students, utilisation may still be low unless reading habits improve," the professor said. When enquired, the higher education department official said a lack of interest to the scheme was seen even among affiliated colleges.
"It was clear that the scheme was not kicking off. Even affiliated colleges were not keen to participate at this scale," he said, adding that the department is now considering alternative digital library models focused specifically on constituent colleges.
"The idea of strengthening e-library access has not been dropped. We are exploring other models that are more feasible and tailored to constituent colleges," the official added.