Congratulations to our partner library consortium in Latvia, the Culture Information Systems Centre (CISC), which turns 20 this year.

CISC started life in 1997, as a small non-profit agency, the Library Information Networks Consortium, formed by eight state academic and research libraries. Today CISC is a government agency under the Ministry of Culture. CISC membership has expanded to include all university libraries, college and polytechnic libraries, public libraries, the National Library, school libraries and specialist libraries.

My name is Alix Halloran and I am GlobalGiving's Field Traveller in West Africa. I spent five months traveling around the region meeting with GlobalGiving's incredible nonprofit partners. I was so excited for the opportunity to spend the day with the regional librarians in Ghana who implement the EIFL Hands-on computer classes!

On 9 May 2017, a five year court battle between publishers and universities finally came to an end when the Supreme Court of India dismissed an appeal by the Indian Reprographic Rights Organization (IRRO) challenging an earlier judgment of Delhi High Court that ruled course packs in India legal for educational purposes.

EIFL and Next Library® awarded seven librarians from developing and transition economy countries scholarships to attend the Next Library Festival 2017, which took place in Aarhus, Denmark from 11 - 14 June. After the festival, we asked them to tell us what they had learnt, who inspired them and what festival takeaways they would apply in their libraries back home. Here’s what they said.

As more and more publishers introduce options for publishing in open access, it can be difficult for researchers to decide where to publish and what they should expect to pay. This blog provides an overview of publishing options and article processing charges (APCs) offered by EIFL’s publishing partners.

EIFL had two experienced representatives at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/34) which met in Geneva from 1-5 May 2017. Teresa Hackett, Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager and Awa Cissé, EIFL’s Copyright Coordinator in Senegal were on the ground promoting library interests to member state delegates, working closely with our international partners and seeking progress on library copyright issues at WIPO.

EIFL is participating in Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, an annual celebration designed to highlight and promote the opportunities presented by fair use and fair dealing, celebrate success stories, and explain these doctrines. Over 40 countries around the world have fair use or fair dealing in their copyright laws.

Fifteen years ago, the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) launched a worldwide campaign for open access to all new peer ­reviewed research. There has been a tremendous progress, but we still have work to do to achieve the BOAI vision of a world in which published research in all academic fields is freely available on the internet. To celebrate the BOAI’s 15th anniversary, EIFL Open Access Programme Manager Iryna Kuchma reflects on progress in open access, and challenges facing the open access movement.

After attending the Internet Governance Forum 2016 in Mexico (6 - 9 December 2016), EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) Advisor for Initiatives for Africa, Janet Sawaya, reflects on shifts in the global debate about internet inclusion, and observes a groundswell of interest in public libraries as essential internet access points.

EIFL joined a 13-strong team representing the world’s libraries, archives and museums advocating for an international treaty for fair access to knowledge at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR/33), which met in Geneva from 14-18 November 2016.

EIFL was represented at SCCR/33 by Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, Teresa Hackett, and Pratyush Nath Upreti of Upreti & Associates in Nepal.