Electronic Information for Libraries
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EIFL works with libraries worldwide to enable sustainable access to high digital information for people in developing and transition countries. They are an international not-for-profit organisation based in Europe with a global network of partners.
Founded in 1999, EIFL began by advocating for affordable access to commercial e-journals for academic and research libraries in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, EIFL partners with libraries and library consortia in more than 45 developing and transition countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Their work has also expanded to include other programmes designed to enable access to knowledge for education, learning, research and sustainable community development.
Context
Access to knowledge is fundamental to education and research, the improvement of lives, and the creation of human capital upon which the development of societies depends. Yet many people around the world are at risk of being left behind in the digital age.
Without access to high quality information and resources, the citizens and future leaders in developing and transition countries are at a severe disadvantage in terms of sustainable socio-economic, political and cultural development Effective libraries play a key role in the provision of information and services to people in a wide range of fields – from health care to engineering, from agriculture to education – thereby supporting scholarship, research and livelihoods in a variety of ways.
For many people, libraries are the only place to access computers and the Internet. Well-trained librarians help users to meet their information needs, and enable institutions and researchers to increase the visibility and usage of their scholarly outputs. In addition, librarians are advocates for the public interest to ensure that information is accessible to all, both now and in the future.
However, factors such as the high cost of commercial e-resources, legal barriers and poor technological infrastructure hamper effective library services and reduce their benefits. In order to realize their full potential, libraries need modern technology, tools, resources, and training.
History
EIFL began as eIFL.net in 1999 as an initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI), a private grant-making foundation that is part of the Soros Foundation network. Recognising the key role that libraries play in the exchange of ideas, knowledge and information and the development of open societies, OSI invested significantly in library development and modernisation especially in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. With traditionally sophisticated educational systems, these countries represented emerging markets for international providers of scholarly and academic information. However, the barriers to access were formidable with little money to pay for expensive electronic resources, poor technological infrastructures, lack of capacity and relatively little awareness of electronic alternatives to print subscriptions. This deprived many libraries of the wealth of international academic journals and databases and the opportunities of digital technologies.
- access to information is essential in education and research and has a direct impact on the development of societies;
- the combined purchasing and negotiating power of libraries can lead to affordable and sustainable access to electronic information in countries in transition;
- the empowerment of citizens and the spread of democracy depend on equal access to information and knowledge worldwide: EIFL is committed to levelling the playing field.
Members
The global network embraces nearly 4,000 libraries in 50 transition and developing countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. Members are in Africa, central, eastern & south-east Europe, former Soviet Union, south-east Asia and the Middle East.
Current members include: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Palestine (Gaza and West Bank), Poland, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Program areas and activities
The two primary activities of EIFL are the creation and support of library consortia in transition and developing countries and assistance in the provision of access to electronic resources. Over the years other program areas have been added.
Content negotiation and licensing
Content negotiation and licensing is the cornerstone of EIFL's work. The number of publisher partners has grown steadily over the years and includes all subjects, journals and databases, reference sources and recently electronic books. The EIFL model licence [1] strives to contain the fairest conditions for access and use for the library and its patrons.
Consortium management and sustainability
This program provides training in the benefits of library cooperation and the consortial approach in seeking funding for electronic resources. EIFL provides guidelines and advice in consortium management with a strong emphasis on sustainability of the consortium.
eIFL-IP Advocacy for Access to Knowledge: copyright & related issues
The objective is to build capacity and expertise amongst the EIFL library community in copyright issues for libraries. The program provides training and raises awareness amongst an identified network of EIFL librarians. In addition, it represents EIFL at international policy fora such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and has taken an active part in a civil society campaign on Access to Knowledge (A2K).
Open Access publishing and Institutional Repositories
The mission of EIFL to foster access to electronic resources makes it a natural partner for the Open Access movement. The aim of the program is to provide training and knowledge sharing on Open Access across the EIFL community. At the same time, EIFL encourages greater visibility of locally produced content in EIFL member countries through the establishment of institutional repositories at leading research institutions within the library consortia.
EIFL-FOSS
EIFL-FOSS advocates free and open source software (FOSS) use in libraries in developing and transition countries. It aims to raise awareness and understanding of FOSS, facilitate EIFL member engagement with FOSS development communities, and undertake projects of special significance to EIFL members. Working closely with a network of EIFL-FOSS country coordinators, the program will build FOSS capacity in libraries; share experiences and expertise; and follow up projects to develop support material for evaluation of and migration to FOSS integrated library systems (ILS) with a further suite of projects evaluating other library tools, such as discovery / resource access tools, mobile phone accessible catalogue interfaces, and accessibility tools.
See also
- Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, of which EIFL is a member