The Comparative Research On Regional Library Alliance Between China And America

Library alliance is built as a library cooperative organization to realize resource sharing and mutual benefit. It is restricted by common accepted agreements and contracts. And it is a new mode of cooperation for libraries to accomplish resource sharing and fund saving under the network environment. It can be said that library alliance is the only way that library takes to adapt resource co-construction and sharing under the network environment. America is the first country to present the conception of library alliance, and its library alliance develops best in the world. It has developed to a cooperative organization which has various consortia categories, flexible cooperative manners and perfect internal mechanism, and has linked various libraries around America to a big information network system. Library alliance in our country started late. Though some library alliance has achieved quite good advances, and received worldwide attention, overall, the construction and development of library alliance in China is still in primary stage, and the professional and system performance are not strong. These all seriously restrict the resource using and information sharing of libraries. Therefore, it is necessary for us to use developing experience of American library alliance for reference, in order to improve the developing level of domestic library alliance. This paper takes OhioLINK of Ohio USA and JALIS of Jiangsu China, which are both the representative and regional library alliance, as the objects of study, and makes a detailed analysis of their management systems, operation mechanisms, common points, and respective advantages, to enlighten the readers, and promote the development of Library alliance in our country.