Ugne Lipeikaite, EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) Impact Manager, will speak at the 18th annual Internet Governance Forum - IGF 2023 – a global forum that brings together stakeholders from government, industry and civil society to discuss public policy issues relating to internet governance. 

To mark the 20th Anniversary of the EIFL Open Access Programme (EIFL-OA), EIFL has created a special page on our website. The web page outlines the history and results of the programme, and  shares stories from our partner library consortia about achievements in their countries.

We also received many messages of congratulations and support from our global partners and take pleasure in sharing these too. 

Iryna Kuchma, EIFL Open Access Programme Manager, and Monica Granados, Assistant Director at Creative Commons, will speak at this Open Access Talk on The Open Climate Campaign and why it is important to open access to climate science.

EIFL is organizing an open science train-the-trainer bootcamp for librarians, research support staff and other professionals who are planning to deliver open science training to researchers and students and who are based in one of our partner countries.

Are you based in one of our partner countries and want to strengthen your open science training skills? Apply now for the EIFL virtual open science train-the-trainer bootcamp, which runs over five half days, from 13 - 17 November 2023.

The deadline for applications is 16 October 2023.

Progress in open access and open science has been strong, but there is still plenty of work to be done, say Ieva Cesevičiūtė, Head of Research Information Services, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Library, and Gintarė Tautkevičienė, KTU Library Director and EIFL Open Access Coordinator in Lithuania.

EIFL has signed an agreement with The Company of Biologists to provide free access as well as free open access publishing for corresponding authors in all five of its journals. The agreement covers 30 EIFL partner countries and is valid until 31 December 2026.

Libraries in 30 countries are eligible for free access to the three specialist journals.

Blessing Chiparausha, Librarian at Bindura University of Science Education and EIFL Open Access Coordinator, tells the story of the long partnership between EIFL and ZULC (the Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium) and shares some of the milestones and achievements arising out of the partnership. 

Today, 8th September 2023, the availability of books for Ukrainians who are blind and visually impaired receives a significant boost. The Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities enters into force in Ukraine, three months after Ukraine’s accession to the treaty.

EIFL is a partner in an international project contributing to public interest copyright policy at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to promote access to knowledge and the right to research.

The project addresses the lack of global norms to promote access to and use of research materials in the shift toward digital research methodologies, such as text and data mining, preservation by cultural heritage institutions and online teaching, learning and research, and the lack of international legal standards permitting cross-border uses of such material.

Milica Ševkušić, librarian at the Institute of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and EIFL Open Access Coordinator, shares milestones in the development of open access and open science in Serbia.

Tahleho Tseole, Head of Information and Resource Management at the National University of Lesotho Library, looks back at the growth of open access and open science in Lesotho. 

Through the agreement, libraries and consortia in 36 EIFL partner countries are eligible for discounted pricing to Eclat Engineering’s two products, RemoteXs and MyLOFT, which facilitate a seamless anywhere-anytime access to a library’s subscribed e-resources.

Patrick Mapulanga, Librarian at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and EIFL Country Coordinator in Malawi, discusses the impact of 20 years of open access and open science in Malawi. And there are exciting plans for the future. 

Elena Sipria-Mironov, librarian at the University of Tartu Library and EIFL Open Access Coordinator, discusses how open access and open science have changed the academic and scientific landscape in Estonia.

EIFL and partners in the ‘Digital skills and inclusion through libraries in Uganda’ project will take part in the Wehubit Days in Kigali, Rwanda. The agenda includes celebration of the successes and discussion of challenges faced by the Wehubit programme and its partner projects.

Ugne Lipeikaite, EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme Impact Manager, and Raymond Amanyabyoona, National Library of Uganda, will participate in the event. 

In 2006, EIFL organized the first regional open access awareness raising workshop for librarians from Southern African countries. Librarians from Malawi were among the delegates to the event in Pretoria, South Africa. 

One of the earliest open access initiatives was establishment of the Malawi Research Repository, launched in 2009 by the Malawi National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) with support from EIFL and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). 

Over the past 20 years, working with EIFL, there has been significant progress in open access in Kyrgyzstan, writes Jyldyz Bekbalaeva, Library Director at American University of Central Asia and EIFL Country Coordinator.

Ugne Lipeikaite and Ramune Petuchovaite of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) share insights and recommendations for library authorities and governments from two reports on public access to computers and the internet in libraries, and experiences shared by a panel of experts during EIFL’s webinar on ‘Libraries and the Global Digital Compact’. 

In 2012 interest in open access in Uganda was growing. Three universities had established institutional open access repositories (Makerere University, Aga Khan University and Uganda Martyrs University) and seven journals were being published in open access. However, no institutions had open access policies.