Advocacy, accountability and transparency: library watchwords in Ghana

“Advocacy, accountability and transparency helped to put our library consortium on its feet, and continue to allow us to flourish”, says Helena Asamoah-Hassan, University Librarian at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a founding member of the Consortium of Academic Libraries in Ghana, known as CARLIGH.

The consortium is certainly flourishing. After only five years, CARLIGH has an impressive membership of eighteen leading libraries dotted all over the country from Accra to Winneba and to Tamale including all six public universities, eight private universities, two polytechnics and research institutes.

Advocacy began in 2003 with the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals (CVCP), the executive heads of the universities, whose role is to promote the development of universities in Ghana. The CVCP was appraised of the rapidly changing information environment and the increasing amount of material available to libraries, students and researchers in electronic formats. The library response to the electronic switchover was clearly set out; the benefits of pooling the limited resources of individual libraries, sharing subscription and training costs, negotiating with international vendors as a single entity to get a better deal for Ghana. Once sensitised to the issues, funding proposals set out the aims and objectives of the fledgling consortium, usage statistics for electronic resources and detailed costings. Convinced of the value of CARLIGH to improve the provision and delivery of information for education, the CVCP gave authorisation to seek financial assistance from the National Council for Tertiary Education and its Teaching and Learning Innovation Fund (TALIF), and so the story began. CARLIGH continues to reach out to faculty board members, lecturers and students through letter-writing campaigns, presentations and training sessions, especially popular with students.

Accountability and transparency have carried CARLIGH on to success. A strong governance structure was put in place to ensure that the consortium is accountable to its members, who sign a formal membership agreement. A member-approved Constitution came into force in 2004, an application for formal registration was lodged with the office of the Registrar-General and the Governing Board meets twice a year. There are two categories of membership. As single subject specialists, research libraries are affiliate members paying an annual membership fee of $250 and a flat rate of $1,000 for e-resources, whilst educational institutions are full members.

Financial accountability is paramount; the consortium’s two bank accounts (foreign and local) are with reputable banks and have three signatories, two of which are required for any transaction. A Strategic Plan, available on the consortium website, sets out the goals and objectives, sustainability and future plans.

Transparency is achieved through equality. The cooperative approach means that members have access to much more material than any single library could obtain on its own. Because resources are shared equally, it was agreed that costs are equally shared. The size of the institution does not count, because this does not necessarily reflect volumes of usage. This makes the payment calculation simple and clear; the annual invoice for e-resources is divided by the number of members in that year and the membership fee is a flat rate of $500 per annum for full members. In return, each member is an equal partner in the consortium with one vote.

What impact has CARLIGH had on access to electronic resources in Ghana? “Database usage is increasing”, according to Helena Asamoah-Hassan. “At my own university, over 18,000 full text articles from twenty different databases were accessed every month during the first nine months of 2007. At the end of the day, this is the reason why CARLIGH exists: to improve the quality of teaching, learning and research in Ghana”.

Through its advocacy targeted at strategic partners and the fostering of a strong culture of openness and equality, CARLIGH is ready to celebrate its fifth anniversary with a healthy future ahead.

March 2008