Enhancing Access to Electronic Resources through Collaborations and E-Document Delivery: Experiences of University Libraries in Kenya

The advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) has been both a curse and blessing to many university libraries in Africa. ICTs have created a heightened demand for efficiency in library service delivery. This has forced university libraries to realign services to the needs and expectations of users needs. ICTs have also opened opportunities for university libraries to cooperate for resource sharing and access to remote information resources. ICTs have created an increased demand for more funding for university libraries, escalation of prices of information resources and reduced patronage of libraries by users. Unfortunately, universities in Africa have not been able to adequately meet the increased demand for more funding for libraries. This forces these libraries to seek collaborations with other institutions locally and internationally for resource sharing and document delivery in order to meet the increased demand by users for effective service delivery. Resource sharing activities such as document delivery and consortial arrangements for acquisition and sharing of e-resources have become popular practices in recent years. This paper shares experiences of university libraries in Kenya in information resource sharing. The paper looks at the resource sharing initiatives as well as opportunities and challenges experienced by these libraries. The paper discusses how these resource sharing initiatives in Kenya help enhance access to e-resources.. Although attempts have been made to encourage university libraries in Kenya to engage in electronic resource sharing, a lot needs to be done. Support is needed from the government and parent institutions to enhance electronic resource sharing and document delivery activities.