eIFL.net: Electronic Information for Libraries Rima Kupryte E-ICOLC 5 th – Denmark, October, 2003

Topics of presentation I - Background II – Geographical Development III - Services IV – Content

I - Background eIFL started in October 1999, as an initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI)

 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 Background Open Society Institute (OSI)

eIFL in 2003  eIFL.net is an independent non-profit organization; it is partly supported by OSI and is currently seeking funding partners. It will act as an agent for participating national consortia  New office set up (Rome)  Management and Advisory Boards are established Background

eIFL’s mission Leads, negotiates, supports and advocates for the wide availability of information by library users in countries-in-transition Background

II – Geographical Development eIFL.net started in countries where the Soros foundations’ network operates, especially in the post socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well as the former Soviet Union. 2002: Geographical expansion

eIFL’s members in 2003 eIFL.net now includes over 2,200 libraries, close to 50 countries, with a total population of about 800 million. Geographical development

eIFL members  Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia:27 countries  AfricaSouthern Africa: 9 countries South Africa Western Africa: Nigeria and other WA countries Geographical development

 Latin America: 3 countries (Guatemala, Haiti, Peru) South East Asia: 3 countries (Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar)  Asia: China Many requests from other countries eIFL members

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 Geographical development

III - Services  Consortia building: Provide advice and grant to countries to help building consortia  Provision of access to commercially produced electronic journals and databases, through collective negotiations with publishers and aggregators (more precision about content at CHAP IV)  Support participation in international fora (eICOLC, IFLA etc.)  Provision of model licenses for e-resources

 Training and workshops: areas include building and managing library consortia, copyright and licensing, integration and management of e-resources, statistics, evaluation of e-resources, negotiation with providers, marketing and promotion on consortial services  Knowledge and information sharing: annual meetings, workshops, discussion groups, task forces, listserv and website, database of member consortia Services … More services

 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 Content IV – Content Content Background

… Content Background 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 Content

Current content  EBSCO  The American Physical Society  Cambridge University Press  Highwire Press  Institute of Physics Publishing  Proquest  Cooperation with OAI Content

 Expand and intensify usage of licensed content  Negotiate with new publishers  Develop content in non-English languages  Expand access to bibliographic databases Our future

 Strenghten country consortia on licensing issues  Continue support to build country consortia  Orderly geographical expansion  Partner with funding bodies to improve connectivity and infrastructure in some countries  Introduce portal technology and journal management software Content … Our future

Thank you! eIFL.net Piazza Mastai Rome Italy Director eIFL’s project: Rima Kupryte