Co-curricular Activities
Conferences
“Zimbabwe is one of the few INASP partner countries where the consortium has been selffunded from the start,” says Agnes Chikonzo, University of Zimbabwe Librarian and country coordinator for INASP and ZULC. Since forming in 2001, ZULC has worked with INASP and other international organizations to advocate for funding for e-resources to support national research, build organizational capacity and build human capacity among member institutions.
Adapting the model
As ZULC has grown, the profile of its membership has changed. Nyarai Chibanda, Librarian at the Midlands State University and Secretary of ZULC, describes some of the differences in member institutions: “We have institutions that have different levels of funding, and different levels of development as well. We have young institutions with only about 500 students [all the way up to] universities with 22,000 students. Their resource base is different … one of our key challenges is funding, especially for subscriptions to e-resources.”
Library Development
ZULC is a consortium existing to serve its members to the best of its ability. Its Chairman describes it as a “formidable organization whose mandate is to bring together university librarians … [to achieve common objectives] in the binding spirit of collaboration.” ZULC provides and facilitates a ariety of benefits to members through collaboration with support from organizations such as INASP. These benefits include the provision of access to affordable e-resource subscriptions to support quality research.