electronic Information for Libraries eIFL

1. electronic Information for LibrarieseIFL.net LIDA 2005

2. eIFL.net starting point • Access to information is essential in education and research, and for the development of civil society in ALL countries • The empowerment of citizens depends on equal access to information worldwide: eIFL.net is committed to leveling the playing field between and within countries • The rules have changed when moving from paper to electronic! eIFL.net is committed to exploiting this opportunity on behalf of developing countries.

3. What is eIFL.net? eIFL.net is a not-for-profit organisation registered in the Netherlands and operational from Italy; it is a global coalition of some 50 national library consortia in transition and developing countries. It supports the building and sustaining of library consortia and negotiates and advocates for the wide availability of electronic information in member countries. It offers a range of relevant services and activities to member consortia.

4. eIFL.net goals • unite purchasing power of a large number of institutions through national library consortia • create and sustain a global infrastructure for central negotiations, administrative and technical support, educational services and issues pertaining to the provision of electronic content • advocate for the needs of member consortia with information providers, policy makers, funding agencies, international fora • provide a capacity building, knowledge and resource sharing network for member consortia

5. eIFL.net governance • Member consortia are represented through an elected advisory council • Annual General Assembly of all national eIFL consortia coordinators establishes policy • Director and central team manage programme of activities, website and electronic discussion lists, negotiations with vendors and funders, partnerships with related projects and bodies

6. Programm areas- building blocks of the digital library - • Electronic commercial content • Consortium building • Institutional repositories • Open access • Intellectual property • Information technology • Educational services

7. Electronic commercial content • Assessment of the electronic information needs of country consortia • Negotiations with providers of electronic information • Central negotiations on behalf of all or a group of member countries • Model license available for members to use • Move to multilingual content (Russian, French)

8. CONSORTIUM BUILDING A word about consortia....... • Consortia are: • Organisations formed by several institutions coming together • With some kind of formal structure • To do things which they would find difficult to do on their own

9. What do eIFL.net consortia do? • Joint acquisition of electronic resources • Joint education and training of users • Joint fund raising • Joint creation of and making accessible local electronic content • Joint implementation of library and university automation….. • MAINLY: sharing resources effectively

10. Consortium building and management- eIFL.net activities - • Workshops (regional and national) • Global General Assembly • Knowledge network (electronic and physical) • Sharing of best practice and case studies • Online resources www.eifl.net incl. manuals, guidelines, models • Participation in national and international fora • Start up grants for poor countries

11. Institutional repositories- capturing local content - • eIFL.net has from the beginning aimed to be a conduit for electronic content produced in member countries • Assistance with the selection of and installation of tools • Recent call for proposals from member consortia • Pilots in a number of countries

12. Open access • Partnership with OA Initiative to facilitate and support publication of authors from eIFL countries in alternative and OA journals • Promotion of Open Access journals • Awareness raising workshops about principles and business models • Advocacy about the importance of OA with national research funding bodies and policy makers

13. Intellectual property • eIFL.net statements and advocacy on behalf of developing and transition countries regarding digital rights - the view of the users • Creation of a network of experts • Awareness raising workshops • eIFL accreditation and participation in international fora - such as WIPO

14. Information technology • International request for information on portal technology, BUT • Many libraries can ill afford proprietory sofware • Currently conducting a survey of Open Source Software for library applications • Establishing what investment is needed to create an ‘out of the box’ open source solution

15. eIFL.net member consortia EUROPE • Albania Serbia and Montenegro • Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovakia • Bulgaria Slovenia • Croatia • Estonia • Kosovo • Latvia • Lithuania • Macedonia • Poland

16. eIFL.net member consortia FORMER SOVIET UNION • Armenia • Azerbaijan • Belarus • Georgia • Moldova • Russia • Tajikistan • Ukraine • Uzbekistan

17. eIFL.net member consortia ASIA AND SOUTH EAST ASIA • Cambodia • China • Laos • Mongolia Planned MyanMar (Burma) and Indonesia MIDDLE EAST kick off workshop • Egypt • Jordan • Lebanon • Palestine Territories • Syria Planned Iran

18. eIFL.net member consortia SOUTHERN AFRICA WEST AND EAST AFRICA • Botswana Cameroon • Lesotho Ghana • Malawi Mali • Mozambique Nigeria • Namibia Senegal • South Africa Sudan • Swaziland Uganda • Zambia • Zimbabwe

19. eIFL.net and its members • provide systems and services that reduce access barriers • represent and advocate for the interests of consortia in relevant fora • negotiate effectively on behalf of all members to reduce cost of access to electronic information • provide support to creation and management of consortia to sustain access to remote and local e-content

20. Thank you for listening Time left for questions! www.eifl.net