Spotlight

Webinars create a buzz about FOSS in libraries 10 Jan 2013
Also available in PDF version high res | low res An brief overview of EIFL-FOSS webinars from 2011 and 2012...  Access to knowledge is fundamental to education and research, and thereby socio-economic development. Students and scholars in...
Public libraries – the go-to place for jobseekers 14 Nov 2012
‘At the library, I learned how to advertise my skills on the internet and to create a website. I sent out resumes and looked for a job online. Fortune smiled on me!’ - Kuanysh Dyusupov, trainee of East Kazakhstan Oblast Pushkin Public Library’s...
Three library consortia celebrate 10 years of service 11 Sep 2012
Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Zimbabwe, three very diverse consortia show vision
In 2012, three EIFL partner consortia in very diverse regions will be celebrating their 10th anniversary.  The first to celebrate will be Kyrgyzstan Library Information Consortium (KLIC) at the beginning of October.  Zimbabwe University...
Spotlight on the GA 2012 1 Aug 2012
PDF version: low res | high res The General Assembly (GA) is the major knowledge-sharing event of the year for EIFL. Coordinators from EIFL partner countries and invited guests meet to discuss EIFL activities and strategies, and to...
EIFL open access advocacy grants deliver big results 28 Feb 2012
Libraries reaching out to research communities in developing and transition countries
Open access (OA) seeks to remove price and permission barriers that prevent knowledge from being shared. OA increases visibility, usage and impact of research and provides significant economic, social and educational benefits. The EIFL-OA programme...
Copyright for Librarians (CFL) reaches millions more 13 Jan 2012
CFL launches in Arabic, Chinese, French and Russian
Copyright law directly affects library services providing access to learning resources, scientific and research information. Librarians and their professional organisations play key roles in shaping national and international copyright policy and in...
EIFL-IP, Home - Spotlight
Libraries lead the way providing tools for visually impaired students 16 Nov 2011
EIFL-sponsored project nominated for prestigious UN award
According to the World Health Organization, across the world, there are 285 million visually impaired persons (VIP); 90% of them are living in developing countries.  The librarians at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) wanted to better serve the...
Perceptions of public libraries in Africa: research + results = change 14 Sep 2011
Harnessing the potential of public libraries for community development
Public libraries are uniquely positioned to change lives and build strong communities. In many parts of the world, where access to technology is extremely limited, libraries are often the sole source of access to computers and the internet. Through...
Spotlight on the GA 2011 13 Jul 2011
EIFL's successful General Assembly in Minsk brought together participants from 46 countries
PDF version The General Assembly is the major knowledge-sharing event of the year for EIFL. Coordinators from EIFL partner countries and invited guests come together to discuss EIFL activities and to debate state-of-the-art issues with expert...
Smart and innovative – public libraries for development 11 May 2011
Sparking new and innovative services to improve people's lives through the use of new technology
Public libraries have enormous potential to help people in so many ways. Through them people can learn new skills, find jobs, discover history and culture, understand current affairs, improve their health, meet other people, connect to other sources...
3 library consortia celebrating 10 successful years 8 Mar 2011
Moldova, Lithuania and Serbia show drive and commitment in transforming library services for users
In 2011, three EIFL partner consortia will celebrate their first ten years. First up in January is Electronic Resources for Moldova - Resurse Electronice pentru Moldova (REM). In October, the Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition,...
OpenAIRE is good for global research 11 Jan 2011
OpenAIRE - the European infrastructure for open access to research results. In 2007, the European Union spent €228 billion ($301 billion) or 1.85% of GDP on research and development. “Europe 2020” - the European Union’s strategy for smart and...
Building digital libraries in Africa: Local content, regional support, global visibility 15 Nov 2010
Amos Kujenga, Regional coordinator, Southern African Greenstone Support Network   “As hubs for Greenstone activities, the National Centres are doing a great job raising awareness of the role of digital libraries both locally and across...
Changing research in Mozambique with a shared institutional repository 3 Sep 2010
An institutional repository (IR) is a publicly accessible archive where the work published by authors affiliated with the university is available online. According to the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), there are over 1,700...
Libraries participating in policy making 7 Jul 2010
Participants in policy making - libraries are stakeholders Restrictive copyright laws create legal barriers to accessing resources for education, research and personal development. This can have significant consequences for libraries in developing...
The power of experience: stakeholders emerge as a force for change in Albania 23 Mar 2010
The Republic of Albania lies in South Eastern Europe in a region known as the Western Balkans. Independent since 1912, Albania was occupied during the Second World War, followed by more than forty years of communist rule. The transition from a...
National Science Library: early adopter of open access in China 1 Mar 2010
The National Science Library at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been leading the way in the development of open access in China. Open access means the free (gratis) availability of peer-reviewed literature to the public on the internet,...
Lithuania: finger on the pulse with eIFL 15 Sep 2009
eIFL works to support library consortia in almost fifty developing and transition countries from Albania to Kyrgyzstan to Zimbabwe. Naturally, the circumstances and needs vary from region to region and from consortium to consortium. Newly formed...
Laos: learning from the world, bringing knowledge back home 7 Jul 2009
The Lao People's Democratic Republic, popularly known as Laos, is a country of six and a half million people. Sharing borders with Burma, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, it differs from other countries in south-east Asia in that it was part...
Gaining the momentum: EIFL marks five year commitment to Open Access in South Africa 22 May 2009
EIFL has been an active proponent of the OA movement since its inception and was one of the original signatories of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). The eIFL-OA programme has established itself as a major advocate for Open Access policies...