International Journal of Library and Information Studies Vol.4 (1) Jan-Mar, 2014 ISSN: 2231-4911 42 UGC INFONET DIGITAL LIBRARY CONSORTIUM RESOURCES: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF USAGE PATTERN IN UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD Dr. V. J.Suseela Indira Gandhi Memorial Library University of Hyderabad ABSTRACT The technological advancements have made radical changes in the conventional system of information processing/dissemination. The role of consortia is highly remarkable in distributing scholarly e-resources to institutions in huge quantities. Paper examines the usage pattern of the UGC Infonet Digital Library Consortium 16 full text databases in relation to the usefulness of the resources in University of Hyderabad, India for the period 2010 -2012. The findings indicate that 92% of usage of titles (e-resources) wherein 9 databases were utilized 100%. The analytical study indicates that 0.26% of titles contributed to 30% of usage, 1.57% of titles resulting in 27% of downloads, whereas 98.17% titles yield only 43% of usage, which means hardly 2% of titles are producing for more than 50% of usage and nearly 98% of titles do not result in 50% of usage. Based on the results, it is suggested that consortia or academic institutions need to identity the core resources and assess the levels of usage/usefulness of peripheral titles as well conducting an in-depth survey/study to mark the changing users preferences before subscribing/unsubscribing expensive databases for the institutions and also to know the gaps in the system. Keywords: UGC INFONET, Library Consortium, User Studies, University of Hyderabad, E-Journals, INFLIBNET. 1. INTRODUCTION: The library consortia is one of the major implications of ICT advancements in Information industry for maximizing the availability of scholarly resources in electronic format to academic and research communities at shared cost. The exceptional growth of scholarly resources in electronic format especially in the form of databases, the diversified user needs in academic institutions, financial crunch and lack of self-sustainability lead to the formation of consortium. The model has been successful in developed as well as developing countries in facilitating the cost-effective scholarly resources as well as services. Though the rationale of consortia emerged out of the conventional library cooperation for Inter Library Loan services, it has been caring more about increasing academic resources and allied services to their member organizations to a larger extent for alleviating the crisis for scholarly resources by means of negotiating the cost of e-resources and favourable terms & conditions of supply and use, by promoting skills and expertise to effectively handle the e-resources as well as