Over the past decade the initial membership of six academic libraries has grown to ten regional institutions across the three provinces of Gauteng, North-West and Limpopo. Our international members include the universities of Botswana and Lesotho. The University of Namibia (a GAELIC member for several years) continues to be invited to share GAELIC experiences even though they are no longer a consortium member,

Early achievements in GAELIC include the utilisation of technology and the linking of member libraries by networks, as well as the sharing of existing resources and exploring ways of cooperation and collaboration particularly in the IT enhanced field. Funding by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a shared state-of-the-art library system secured a sound start to this and by 2003, the INNOPAC system had been implemented at all sixteen library sites within the consortium. By 2008 all member libraries were using the latest version of the system, called Millennium.

GAELIC continues to be recognised as a successful FOTIM project. This is due primarily to acknowledgment and appreciation by its member libraries for opportunities to participate in collaborative initiatives, create value together and have ready access to colleagues willing to share experiences and expertise.

Over the years our successful projects have included:
 the single server investigation project (completed in 2008),
 the “e-Services Environment: Changing to Higher Gear" Symposium held in 2005
 the GAELIC & Friends Marketing Fairs
 shared testing and evaluating of various digital reference services
 as well as a variety of projects carried out on behalf of the member libraries specifically in the areas of :-
o online referencing access
o transformation
o institutional merger challenges
o policy development
o Inter Library Loans
o quality assurance

GAELIC provides its members with good networking, training and capacity building opportunities through a wide variety of workshops, training sessions, marketing events and information sessions for all its member library staff.

GAELIC's objectives are selected in order to be aligned with the goals and requirements of the National Plan for Higher Education of South Africa and therefore support its member libraries in achieving their goals. As a result of this, the GAELIC strategic plan has been recently updated to deal with the changing needs within the Higher Education environment. The three objectives selected attempt to address issues and challenges facing academic libraries in the 21st century.
 To promote optimal usage of the Millennium system by the GAELIC member libraries
 To build capacity through identification and provision of training needs and services for the optimal utilisation of resources
 To improve cost efficiency through joint procurement and resources sharing

As a member of SANLiC, (the South African National Library and information Consortium) negotiations on behalf of the member libraries result in substantial cost saving in access to various electronic databases and in joint purchasing of journal titles.

Please see the following for more information about GAELIC and consortia in South Africa

SOUTH AFRICAN ACADEMIC LIBRARY CONSORTIA – CREATING VALUE TOGETHER
Paper delivered by G Thomas
ICOLC 2004 Conference – 6^th European Meeting^, 28 to 30 October 2004 

COLLABORATION AND SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE: THE ROLE OF CONSORTIA
Paper delivered by Dr JC Henning
International Conference on Collaboration and Sharing of Knowledge, 30 & 31 July 2003

Additional articles available on Library  Consortia:
Sekabembe, Beatrice.  Library consortia in The standing conference of African national and university libraries in the eastern, central and southern Africa region (SCANUL-ECS).  A report of the case study done on behalf of the International Network for the availability of Scientific Publication (INASP).  INASP. 2002. 50p.