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.

Members of the EIFL Open Access Programme team, Iryna Kuchma and Gwen Franck, blog about a new training format and training resources for open science trainers. 

Take our training materials, build on our training format and organize your train-the-trainer event! 

EIFL Guest Blogger, Open Access Programme Coordinator in Serbia, Milica Sevkusic, updates us on the latest developments in open access (OA) in Serbia. EIFL-supported awareness raising, advocacy and policy development workshops since the year 2000 have resulted in the launch of two OA journals portals (doiSerbia and SCIndeks), and improved OA publishing policies and practices.

In 2018, EIFL and partners Peer to Peer University and Kenya National Library Service completed a three-year project to test and encourage growth of learning circles - in-person study groups for online learners - in public libraries in Africa. The results far exceeded the project’s goals - in just one year (2018) over a thousand people completed online courses in a wide range of subjects in libraries in Kenya and Uganda, and in Zambia dozens of learners are working through courses.

EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) Advisor for Initiatives for Africa, Janet Sawaya, shares her takeaways from the 13th Annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2018, in Paris, France (November 12 - 14), which attracted more than 3,000 participants from 143 countries. This year’s IGF theme was the Internet of Trust.

Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, attended the 37th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the global body that sets international copyright law and policy, that took place in Geneva from 26 - 30 November 2018.

In August, 15 young African public librarians travelled to Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia) to take part in an intensive learning, knowledge-sharing and networking experience organized by EIFL and partners. The 15 were participants in the Initiative for Young African Library Innovators (IYALI). After their journey, we asked them to reflect on the experience, and how they might apply what they learnt in their libraries back home.

To stay relevant, public libraries must develop strong relationships with their communities, and meet their information, education or leisure needs. Also, public libraries should know local socio-economic development priorities to make sure that they can contribute to these. For librarians, this means constantly learning new skills or upgrading old ones so that that they are confidently able to offer new and innovative services to meet changing needs and priorities.

Teresa Hackett, EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager participated in the 36th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), the global body that sets international copyright law and policy, that took place from 28 May to 1 June 2018. During the busy week, EIFL engaged in discussions on libraries and archives, made interventions in plenary sessions, met with member state delegates and collaborated with NGO partners.

EIFL has been working with public libraries in Africa since 2010, supporting introduction of new services that use computers and the internet. In the course of our work, we observed that public librarians were struggling to collect statistics about their new services. Statistics gathering was limited to basic library operations, like lending books and library membership numbers.