Origins

This joint initiative from Jean-Yves Mérindol, former President of the Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg 1, and Iris Reibel-Bieber, Director of Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg 1 libraries, has experienced rapid development due to the involvment of the directors of the contributing libraries, and the support of each University's President.

From the outset, the strong relationship between Couperin, the Presidents of the Universities and the Conference of University Presidents (CPU) strengthened the consortium. The original group, confined to 5 members (1 president and 4 library directors composing Couperin's board), could react quickly, which helped to solve the numerous issues induced by the development of what had become the 2nd consortium in Europe.

Key points

• Couperin is an association with 210 members, governed by the principles of the French 1901 law.

• Geneviève Gourdet, President of the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, was named President of the Consortium after Mr. Mérindol.

• In 2009, Jean-Pierre Finance, President of University Henri Poincaré Nancy 1 was elected as President of Couperin.

• The Board of Director (Conseil d'Administration) is composed of University Presidents and Schools Directors. This Committee is the political organ of Couperin: it validates the Executive Board's proposals. The governing Board and the Executive Board hold joint meetings regularly.

• The Executive Board is led by a coordinator, elected every three years. It supervizes two departments. The coordinator of the Executive Board is (Grégory Colcanap, (Director of Evry Val d'Essonne University Libraries). With his colleagues approval, he attends to the Board's internal and external efficiency (agenda, inviting, meetings summaries, validation, diffusion, relationship with the Governing Board, with the Trustees, external partnership,...). He coordinates, under the President's authority, the consortium's management. You may get in touch with him for any additional information.

• The department of the coordination of negotiations. Head: Catherine Etienne, Director of Bordeaux 1 University libraries. She is helped by two coordinators, Mariette Naud and Laurent Baudy.
  The department manages all the negotiations with the publishers. It is organised in thematic areas. The list of persons in charge of negotiations, as well as the products previously negotiated or still under negotiation is available in the department area of the website.
  The department is also in charge of the following issues:

  • Funding models for the purchase of e-resources, and reflection upon the new organisation of information implied by a shared management of these resources.

  • Evaluation of the information budgets evolution.

  • Usage reports, assessment and creation of reliable indicators based on the data provided by the publishers, in collaboration with the Libraries Department of the French Ministry of Education.

  • Collaboration with the research institutions and their existing networks, such as Mathsdoc (national information network for mathematics).

  • Moderation of the mailing list « This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ».

• Department of studies and forecasting. Head: Jérôme Kalfon, Director of Paris Descartes University libraries. He is helped by a coordinator, André Dazy. The department is commissioned, for expertise, evaluation and information watch in the fields of technical and scientific information. It also manages the communication of Couperin. It implements the options defined by the Consortium such as :

  • Electronic resource management system

  • Open archives and open access

  • E-books

  • Remote access

  • Long-term preservation of e-resources

  • Moderation of the mailing-list " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it " and " This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "

• Human resources: the consortium works on a basis of sharing and mutualisation of resources, human resources included, and not as a commercial service provider. The Libraries Department of the French Ministry of Education provides a librarian position for each department, each position depending on the assigned University (Bordeaux 1 and Paris 5).