Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003

eIFL.netElectronic Information for

Libraries

Rima Kupryte

ICOLC, Las Vegas, 27-28 March, 2003

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003

BackgroundOSI - Open Society Institute

• Private and grant-making foundation of George Soros

• Programmes in civil society, culture, education, media, public health, human and women’s rights, social, legal and economic reform

• OSI Budapest and New York, and a network of national foundations in more than 50 countries

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BackgroundeIFL Program

Leads, negotiates, supports andadvocates for the wide availability of

information by library users incountries-in-transition

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eIFL.net’s members

• eIFL membership comprises country consortia• Central, Eastern and Southern Europe,

Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia: 27 countries

• Africa– Southern Africa: 10 countries– Western Africa: Nigeria and other WA countries

• Latin America: 3 countries (Guatemala, Haiti, Peru)

• South East Asia: 5 countries (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia)

• Asia: China• Many requests from other countries

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Challenges for Countries in Transition

• Governance– Need to organize each country consortium– Libraries in many countries are under-funded

– Content and e-resource purchase– Need for non-English (and non-Roman character

set) interfaces and content – Country funding is irregular & prompt payment is

not always a cultural norm

• Technology– Infrastructure quality is variable

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eIFL.net: Organization

• 2003 eIFL.net is an independent non-profit organization

• New office set up (Rome)• Management and Advisory Boards

are established

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Developments: Consortium Building

• Moving from top-down approach to greater involvement of library communities within each country

• Identifying existing consortia and creating new ones

• Providing advice and grants to strengthen local consortia

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eIFL.net: Purpose

• Support participation in international fora (eICOLC, IFLA etc.)

• Annual eIFL coordinators’ General Assembly• National and regional workshops on

consortium building, licensing, negotiating, resource development

• Provide model licenses• Knowledge and resource sharing throughout

the eIFL network in meetings, listserv and website

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Content: The Beginnings

• April 1999: invitation to tender for the provision of electronic journals in social sciences and humanities to the countries in the OSI network– A few selection criteria

• Lowest access prices per country – some 95% discount

• Country wide licences: unlimited number of not-for-profit institutional users

• Highest number of FT titles• Both online and CD/DVD format

• 1999: global contract with EBSCO Publishing

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Developments: ContentRecent Activity

• Membership survey indicated need for S&T• 17 July 2001: Request for proposals launched• 6 Sept 2001: deadline for applications• 15 Oct 2001: evaluation by expert team• 31 Dec 2001: expressions of interest by eIFL

member countries received• Jan 2002: negotiations start with publishers• May 2002: free trials for selected products started• Sept - Dec 2002: licensing with selected publishers

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Developments: ContentNew S&T Resources

• The American Physical Society• Blackwell Publishing• Cambridge University Press• Highwire Press• Institute of Physics Publishing• Proquest

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eIFL.net: Content

• 10 EBSCO databases, including Academic Search Premier & Business Source Premier

• EBSCO content also in Russian language• S&T: APS, Blackwell Publishing, CUP,

HighWire Press, IOP, ProQuest• Cooperation with BOAI on directory of

free scholarly content & local content

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eIFL.net Priorities 2003

• Expand and intensify usage of licensed content• Negotiate with new publishers• Develop content in non-English languages• Expand access to bibliographic databases• Strenghten country consortia on licensing issues• Continue support to build country consortia• Orderly geographical expansion• Introduce portal technology and journal

management software• Partner with funding bodies to improve

connectivity and infrastructure in some countries

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How can you help?• Expertise• Resources• Documentation

Volunteer forms are available!

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THANK YOU!

www.eifl.net

Rima Kupryterima.kupryte@eifl.net