In Part I of this two-part blog, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager Teresa Hackett looks at the immediate challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed for the copyright and licensing framework as education moves online.

In February 2020 five young public librarians from Africa travelled to Nashville in the USA to take part in an international learning, knowledge-sharing and networking experience organized by EIFL and partners. The five were participants in the EIFL Initiative for Young African Library Innovators (IYALI). After their journey, we asked them about the experience and how they might apply what they had learnt in their libraries back home.

In May 2020, member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) appointed Mr Daren Tang to WIPO’s top job in Geneva. As leader of WIPO, the global body that sets international law and policy on intellectual property issues, the new Director General takes charge of an organization whose direction on copyright determines how libraries do their work, especially in the digital environment.

EIFL Guest Blogger, EIFL Open Access Programme Coordinator in Serbia, Milica Ševkušić, shares ideas for helping Serbian researchers obtain discounts and waivers and for raising researchers’ awareness about Article Processing Charges (APCs).

EIFL guest blogger Velenasi Mwale Munsanje, the immediate past president of the Library and Information Association of Zambia (LIAZ), looks back at a two-year partnership with EIFL to build capacity of public librarians in Zambia.

Digital inclusion was one of the main themes at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2019 in Berlin (25 - 29 November), presenting opportunities to highlight the role of libraries in providing meaningful access to the internet. Ramune Petuchovaite, EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme Manager, shares highlights from the event.

The EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) was launched with a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in November 2009. The programme aimed to spark innovation in public libraries in developing and transition economy countries. Ramune Petuchovaite, EIFL-PLIP Manager, reflects on a decade of EIFL-PLIP.

Deborah Jacobs, former director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Initiative celebrates 10 years of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) in this guest blog for EIFL.

“In an unprecedented initiative called ‘Electronic Information for Libraries’ (EIFL Direct), libraries in 39 countries will have access to a wealth of electronic full-text scholarly journals.” This announcement, by press release, marked the birth of EIFL 20 years ago, on 5 October 1999. 

In June, Ethiopia adopted a national open access policy for higher education institutions. EIFL guest blogger, Dr Solomon Mekonnen Tekle, librarian at Addis Ababa University Library, and EIFL Open Access Coordinator in Ethiopia, celebrates the adoption of the policy.