electronic Information for Libraries Activities of the not-for-profit Organisation eIFL.net

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electronic Information for LibrariesActivities
of the not-for-profit Organisation eIFL.net

• Iran September 2005

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Why eIFL.net?

• Access to information is essential for education
  and research, the economy, institutional
  personal development
• The empowerment of citizens depends on equal
  access to information worldwide
• Financial and other barriers hinder this access
• eIFL.nets mission is to lower these barriers for
  libraries and their users in poor, developing and
  transition countries

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What is changing?

• Production of information is changing fast from
  print to electronic
• Distribution of information is changing from many
  copies of a printed journal sent to many
  libraries to one site for electronic access by
  many users
• Access to information is changing from reading a
  journal issue / article when it arrives in the
  library to searching for articles on a specific
  theme across a number of journals when the
  information is needed

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How does eIFL.net exploit this changing
environment?

• eIFL.net exploits these changes on behalf of
  libraries and their users in member countries
• Because access by many users does not cost the
  vendor all that much more per new subscriber
• Because bulk access lowers the price overall
• Because the consortium structure is a proven
  model of managing resources in a more
  cost-effective way

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Who is eIFL.net?

• a not-for-profit organisation registered in the
  Netherlands with a small office in Italy
• now a global coalition of some 50 national
  library consortia in developing and transition
  countries
• runs membership driven programs and services
• negotiates and advocates for the wide
  availability of electronic information in member
  countries
• And offers a range of related services and
  activities, most importantly on consortium
  management

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What does eIFL.net aim for?

• 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 and knowledge and
  resource sharing network for member consortia

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How did eIFL.net start?

• Global tender for e-journals in social sciences
  and humanities won by EBSCO, initially for 35
  countries mostly in Central Europe and former
  Soviet Union
• Top down approach that needed bottom-up
  mobilisation of stake-holders eg libraries
• Capacity building in consortium building,
  management and sustainability resulted in
  creation of global network of national consortia
  united in eIFL.net
• Other services and geographical areas over 5
  years added by demand from members

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How is eIFL.net governed?

• eIFL.net is an NGO with statutes and a management
  board (board of trustees)
• Member consortia are represented through an
  elected advisory council advising on policy
• Annual General Assembly of all national eIFL
  consortia coordinators confirms policy
• Director and central team manage menue of
  services, activities, website and electronic
  discussion lists, negotiations with vendors and
  funders, partnerships with related projects and
  bodies

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How does eIFL.net operate?

• Delivery of programs through
• Training workshops
• Awareness raising seminars
• Specialist meetings
• Annual General Assembly
• Small grants for focused projects
• Web based resources, guidelines, manuals
• Knowledge sharing through website, newsletter,
  discussion lists
• Representation of eIFL interests at international
  level

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Which programs does eIFL.net offer?

• Licensing electronic commercial content
• Building sustainable library consortia
• Supporting Institutional Repositories and Open
  Access activities
• Lobbying and awareness raising in Intellectual
  Property issues
• Giving Information Technology support

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Electronic commercial content

• Regular assessment of the electronic resource
  needs of country consortia
• Negotiations with providers of electronic
  information in all subjects TO ARRIVE AT A PRICE
  AFFORDABLE TO THE MEMBERS
• Talking with aggregators, big and small
  publishers, organisations, projects, about terms
  and conditions
• Russian content for CIS countries

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Electronic commercial content

• eIFL.net does NOT pay for the content, or only in
  very special cases for a short time
• Central negotiations on behalf of all or a group
  of member countries
• Model license available for members to use
• Access to legal advice
• eIFL.net assists in fund-raising in-country to
  ensure sustainability

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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
• Mainly to share scarce resources!

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Consortium building and management

• Workshops (regional and national) and GA
• 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
  (ICOLC, IFLA, WSIS, WIPO)
• Start up grants for poor countries

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Consortia in the eIFL network
There is not 1 receipt for all countries the
best and most sustainable solution depends on the
situation in-country
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Institutional repositories- capturing local
content -

• eIFL.net has from the beginning aimed to be a
  conduit for electronic content produced in eIFL
  countries
• Assistance with the selection of IT tools and
  technical help and support to build IR
• Recent call for proposals from member consortia
• Pilots have started in some eIFL.net countries
• This programme area is new and just starting to
  produce results

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Open access

• Partnership with OAI to facilitate and support
  publication of authors from eIFL countries in
  alternative and OA journals
• Promotion of Open Access journals (DOAJ)
• Awareness raising workshops (SA, Ukraine,
  Lithuania, China, others planned) about
  principles and business models
• Advocacy about the importance of OA with research
  funding bodies and policy makers

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Intellectual property

• Creation of a network of experts
• Awareness raising and training workshops
• eIFL accreditation and participation in
  international fora - such as WSIS and WIPO
• eIFL.net statements and advocacy on behalf of
  developing and transition countries regarding
  digital rights aimed at Fair Use for all members

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Information technology

• International request for information on portal
  technology,
• BUT
• Many libraries can ill afford proprietory sofware
• Just completed a survey of Open Software for
  library applications which is available on the
  eIFL.net web
• Talking with Google about portal solution
• Advice on IR software tools

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eIFL.net member consortia

• EUROPE
• Albania Serbia and Montenegro
• Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovakia
• Bulgaria Slovenia
• Croatia
• Estonia
• Kosovo
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Macedonia
• Poland

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eIFL.net member consortia

• FORMER SOVIET UNION
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Georgia
• Moldova
• Russia
• Tajikistan
• Ukraine
• Uzbekistan

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eIFL.net member consortia

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

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eIFL.net member consortia

• SOUTHERN AFRICA WEST AND EAST AFRICA
• Botswana Cameroon
• Lesotho Ghana
• Malawi Mali
• Mozambique Nigeria
• South Africa Senegal
• Swaziland Sudan
• Zambia Uganda
• Zimbabwe

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eIFL.net and its members

• Memorandum of Understanding between eIFL.net and
  member consortia
• Membership fee according to tiers - first year
  free
• Calculation demonstrates that benefits vastly
  outweigh fees
• Terms of reference for the country coordinator
• Choose him/her well, a central role!

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eIFL.net and its members - eIFL promises in the
MoU-

• provide systems and services that reduce access
  barriers
• maintain constant communications flow about eIFL
  activities, relevant developments and
  initiatives, etc
• represent and advocate for the interests of
  consortia in relevant international fora
• negotiate effectively on behalf of all members to
  reduce cost of access to electronic information
• provide support to creation and management of
  consortia

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eIFL.net and its members - member promises in the
MoU -

• create consensus for the formation of a library
  consortium which will sustain the initiative
• ensure access to electronic content by all
  relevant libraries and their users through
  national training and promotion activities
• ensure sustainability by seeking funding from
  government, agencies or other sources as
  appropriate

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