LIBNET: A Case Study in Information Ownership & Tariff Incentives in a Collaborative Library Database

In any cooperative database the participants contribute their data for their own as well as the benefit of the other members, usually with incentives from the database administrators. A South African library network company (LIBNET) provided a networked service to participating libraries. Member benefits included conversion of their catalogues into machine-readable form, significantly reduced costs through cooperative cataloguing and more efficient interlibrary loans through a union catalogue of the holdings of the participant libraries. This case study explores some of the issues influencing tariff determination in a cooperative database. Questions of data ownership and the provision of incentives for the uploading of data also raise legal and ethical issues. The case study provides a basis for exploring business strategy in collaborative database management.