Friedrich-Althoff-Konsortium e.V. is the regional consortium for Berlin and Brandenburg.
Scientific institutions of the federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg have joined together in Friedrich-Althoff-Konsortium e.V. as a registered non-profit association in order to make scientific information from electronic publications to its users. For this purpose, the organizational infrastructure is built and the development of the technical infrastructure is advanced in cooperation with the regional network for cooperative library services (Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund – KOBV).
Friedrich-Althoff-Konsortium e.V. aims to:
- strengthen the information supply in the region.
- improve its members’ market position.
A couple of federal institutions are associated members or represented in the consortium with guest status.
The aim of the consortium is to:
- jointly acquire electronic publications (at first primarily electronic journals),
- archive them and make them permanently available for use in cooperation with other institutions, in particular with KOBV,
- index them and/or make them permanently searchable, either independently or in cooperation with other libraries or consortia,
- support Internet-based non-commercial projects for the preparation and distribution of electronic publications and include them in the overall service,
- create the organizational prerequisites for an uncomplicated and comprehensive access for authorized users as well as remove potential access barriers,
- maintain and extend the information offered in the region.
The consortium aims to facilitate access to electronic information for libraries in the region and to open up the opportunity for them to offer their own services as a virtual library according to their own service spectrum.
Currently about 100 universities and universities of applied sciences from other federal states as well as about 120 institutions of the Helmholtz- and Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Fraunhofer- and Max-Planck-Gesellschaft as well as the Federal Government and other agencies participate in individual contracts.