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From book famine to book banquet: Ghana gets ready

Only between 1-7% of books worldwide are published in formats accessible to blind people such as Braille, large print, audio, DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System). The aim of the Marrakesh Treaty, that creates an international legal framework to enable the cross-border sharing of accessible materials, is to alleviate the “book famine” for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.

VIDEO: Impact of Uganda library service for farmers

EIFL has released a new video which highlights the impact on farmers in a small community in rural Uganda when the local library receives laptops and internet connections.

Bwera Information Centre (BIC) is a tiny rural library in Kasese District in Western Uganda, featured in the EIFL video.

Sylvester Mapoze, Director of Bwera Information Centre (BIC)

A look ahead – EIFL focus areas in 2014

Happy New Year!

The EIFL team has been busy preparing and planning a wide range of activities to be implemented this year.

Read below to see what each EIFL programme will be focusing on in 2014.

EIFL-Licensing

The EIFL-Licensing programme will coordinate an exciting new project in Myanmar from January 2014. Funded by the Open Society Foundations' Higher Education Support Program, and backed by the Myanmar Ministry of Education, the eLibrary Myanmar project will open up new opportunities for education and research.

EIFL-FOSS looks back at four years of achievements

The latest phase of funding for the EIFL-FOSS programme ran from 2010 to 2013

As the EIFL Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) programme draws to a close, we look back on a four-year programme of innovative activities using and promoting free software in libraries.

In doing so, we celebrate the funding from Open Society Foundations Information Program that allowed the programme to take place.

Innovative libraries: Numbers tell the story

EIFL‘s Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) is proud to present the results of the innovative public library services we have supported over the last three years.

The innovative services are all new to the public libraries and to the communities served. They were strengthened by working in partnership with a variety of government and non-governmental organizations – schools and universities, clinics and hospitals, employment bureaus, technology innovators, support agencies for farmers, youth and women, and many more.

 

UN Day of Persons with Disabilities: breaking legal barriers

The third day of December 2013 marked International Day of Persons with Disabilities – designated by the United Nations (UN) to promote understanding of disability issues, and to mobilize support for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Around the world, people with disabilities face physical, social and economic barriers that exclude them from participating fully and effectively as equal members of society.

How a modern library keeps mothers healthy in rural Ghana

An EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (PLIP) project that connects expecting mothers with needed health information through mobile phones has been featured in the Impatient Optimist development blog. 

Nicole Baute

2013 General Assembly

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On November 11 – 13, 2013, 82 participants from 47 countries met to debate the latest developments in electronic content delivery, to discover emerging topics that have a significance for libraries, and to share achievements from library consortia over the last year.

Open Access Week 2013 in review

Open Access Week 2013 is a global event, now in its 7th year that promotes open access as a new norm in scholarship and research. The theme this year was "Open Access: Redefining Impact".

"We are delighted to see EIFL partner countries actively engaged in holding a diverse number of events, educating the researchers, students and general public and spreading awareness," said Iryna Kuchma, EIFL Open Access Programme Manager.

What does Open Access mean to you?

In celebration of Open Access Week 2013, we reached out to librarians and partners within our global EIFL network to answer a very simple question:

Below are some of the responses.

Senegal

“The production of human intelligence, in terms of research results and knowledge, widely available to humanity through the Internet.”