KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 –The establishment of the Higher Education Electronic Resource Consortium serves as a catalyst in providing quality digital information to staff and students of institutions of higher learning, especially when the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, said Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad.
The Higher Education Minister, in a statement today, said the consortium will also ensure savings and effectiveness of subscription to digital information for the long term.
“The increase in cost of subscribing to information databases every year will reduce the ability of public universities to maintain access to academic information resources for their staff and students.
“Efforts are being made by the Higher Education Electronic Resources Consortium Committee to expand subscriptions to databases of critical information to higher education staff and students by 2022,” she said.
Noraini said academic staff, students and researchers were now enjoying access to the ScienceDirect database, which is subscribed by the consortium, as well as the Scopus and Emerald databases subscribed by the Higher Education Ministry (KPT).
The initiative to establish the Higher Education Electronic Resource Consortium by the academic libraries of Public Higher Education Institutions (IPTA) aims to provide infrastructure facilities for digital academic references to IPTA for teaching, learning and research activities.
She said a memorandum of understanding was signed by 20 local public universities last April 1 on the setting up of the consortium.
