Deborah Jacobs, former director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Initiative celebrates 10 years of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) in this guest blog for EIFL.

“In an unprecedented initiative called ‘Electronic Information for Libraries’ (EIFL Direct), libraries in 39 countries will have access to a wealth of electronic full-text scholarly journals.” This announcement, by press release, marked the birth of EIFL 20 years ago, on 5 October 1999. 

In June, Ethiopia adopted a national open access policy for higher education institutions. EIFL guest blogger, Dr Solomon Mekonnen Tekle, librarian at Addis Ababa University Library, and EIFL Open Access Coordinator in Ethiopia, celebrates the adoption of the policy.

Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, is the guest on the latest episode of Copyright Waffle, a podcast from the team at UK Copyright Literacy who aim to make learning about copyright fun and empowering. .

Our Guest Blogger, Colleen Campbell, from the Open Access 2020 Initiative, reflects on the similarities between the unknown heights of the Kyrgyz mountains and knowledge locked behind subscription paywalls, and discusses how Transformative Agreements with publishers are accelerating the transition to open access. 

Our Guest Blogger, Dr Jane Secker, is Senior Lecturer in Educational Development at City, University of London. EIFL invited Jane and partner, Chris Morrison, Copyright, Software Licensing and Policy Manager at the University of Kent, to the 2019 EIFL General Assembly.

In May 2019, six young African public librarians travelled to Denmark to take part in an intensive week-long learning, knowledge-sharing and networking experience that included participation in the Next Library 2019 conference in Aarhus (2 - 4 June), which was attended by over 400 people from 44 countries. The six young librarians, from Ghana, Kenya, Namibia and Zambia, were participants in the EIFL Initiative for Young African Library Innovators (IYALI) 2019 programme. 

In May 2019, I joined six young public library innovators from Africa at the 3rd African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) Conference and 5th African Library Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The conference was a rich learning ground for the young librarians, who were all there as a result of their participation in the Initiative for Young African Library Innovators (IYALI).

Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, participated in the 38th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) that took place in Geneva from 1-5 April 2019. EIFL engaged with member states to explain why libraries need an international copyright framework, and how the planned WIPO regional seminars can contribute to achieving real results.

Limitations and exceptions for libraries & archives and education have been on the agenda at WIPO since 2011. Work on the topic has been extensive, substantive and has enjoyed much support from most WIPO member states. But two allied groups of member states, the European Union (EU) and the group of Central European and Baltic States (CEBS), have resisted progress and repeatedly opposed discussion on an international instrument concerning limitations and exceptions for education, research, libraries, archives, and museums.