Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net Electronic Information for Libraries Rima Kupryte ICOLC, Las Vegas, March, 2003

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Background OSI - Open Society Institute 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

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Background eIFL Program Leads, negotiates, supports and advocates for the wide availability of information by library users in countries-in-transition

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net’s members eIFL membership comprises country consortia Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia: 27 countries Africa –Southern Africa: 10 countries –Western Africa: Nigeria and other WA countries Latin America: 3 countries (Guatemala, Haiti, Peru) South East Asia: 5 countries (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia) Asia: China Many requests from other countries

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 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

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net: Organization 2003 eIFL.net is an independent non- profit organization New office set up (Rome) Management and Advisory Boards are established

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Developments: Consortium Building Moving from top-down approach to greater involvement of library communities within each country Identifying existing consortia and creating new ones Providing advice and grants to strengthen local consortia

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net: Purpose Support participation in international fora (eICOLC, IFLA etc.) Annual eIFL coordinators’ General Assembly National and regional workshops on consortium building, licensing, negotiating, resource development Provide model licenses Knowledge and resource sharing throughout the eIFL network in meetings, listserv and website

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Content: The Beginnings 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

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Developments: Content Recent Activity 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

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 Developments: Content New S&T Resources The American Physical Society Blackwell Publishing Cambridge University Press Highwire Press Institute of Physics Publishing Proquest

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net: Content 10 EBSCO databases, including Academic Search Premier & Business Source Premier EBSCO content also in Russian language S&T: APS, Blackwell Publishing, CUP, HighWire Press, IOP, ProQuest Cooperation with BOAI on directory of free scholarly content & local content

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 eIFL.net Priorities 2003 Expand and intensify usage of licensed content Negotiate with new publishers Develop content in non-English languages Expand access to bibliographic databases Strenghten country consortia on licensing issues Continue support to build country consortia Orderly geographical expansion Introduce portal technology and journal management software Partner with funding bodies to improve connectivity and infrastructure in some countries

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 How can you help? Expertise Resources Documentation Volunteer forms are available!

Montenegro and Mazedonia, February 2003 THANK YOU! Rima Kupryte