News

eIFL Success Story wins UNESCO Information for All Programme award

eIFL award winning story “Open Source Software brings a new lease of life to libraries in Palestine”

The UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) recently invited UNESCO Member States, NGOs and professional groups to share their stories and good practices in using information for development in all parts of the world. The stories collected provide practical examples to inspire others and raise the visibility of the critically important role that information plays in development. eIFL.net submitted stories from its “Spotlight” series, which highlights achievements of eIFL members, and the users of their library services, in developing and transition countries.

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eIFL-FOSS ILS project: pilot workshop, 10-11 June 2008, Yerevan, Armenia

Technical leads from each of the pilot institutions for the eIFL-FOSS ILS project will gather in Yerevan, Armenia, on 10-11 June 2008 for a two-day workshop. Evergreen developer, Dan Scott, of Laurentian University in Canada and Koha developer, Henri-Damien Laurent, of BibLibre in France will provide the expert input for the event. The workshop is being hosted by the Fundamental Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. Further information on the workshop may be found here.

eIFL-FOSS ILS project: pilot sites selected

The response to the Call-For-Participation for the eIFL-FOSS ILS project was heartening. Applications were received from 12 countries, representing 11 language groups, with library collections ranging in size from 10 thousand volumes to 3.5 million volumes. The following institutions were selected to conduct pilots as part of the project:

Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences, Armenia
National Scientific Library, Georgia
National Library Service, Malawi
Library of the Faculty of Medicine Pharmacy and Dentistery, Universite of Bamako, Mali
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, Nepal
Midlands State University Library, Zimbabwe
An-Najah National University Library, Palestine (West Bank)

Each participating pilot site will install either the Koha or Evergreen ILS. Technical leads from each pilot will participate in an initial training workshop, and contributing throughout the life of the project to a support documentation effort developing materials to assist with the installation, evaluation, and migration to either of these FOSS ILSs. Case studies of each pilot's experiences will be published on the eIFL.net website during the life of the project.

Although only a small number of applicants could be selected as pilot sites, all institutions that submitted applications were invited to join the project email discussion list in order to benefit from the experiences of the pilot sites throughout the life of the project.

eIFL-FOSS ILS project: call for participation

eIFL-FOSS ILS is a project of the eIFL-FOSS program supporting evaluation of and migration to free and open source (FOSS) integrated library systems (ILS). It is an opportunity for librarians in eIFL member countries to engage directly with the Koha or Evergreen development communities and to contribute to that ongoing development. In particular it is an opportunity for pilot institutions, in conjunction with the active participation of the eIFL-FOSS country coordinators, to identify and draft support documentation to aid themselves and other libraries that may wish to pursue this FOSS ILS path.

Call for Participation:

At this time we invite any eIFL.net library that is interested in participating in a pilot of either Koha or Evergreen to make themselves known to the eIFL-FOSS Program Manager, Randy Metcalfe randy.metcalfe[@]eifl.net , by no later than 28 February 2008. An initial meeting of pilot institutions will take place as soon after that date as is feasible. Please be sure to identify which ILS you are most interested in piloting. The full application details along with further details of what is involved in piloting are available here.

eIFL-FOSS program secures funding

Core funding for the eIFL-FOSS program has been secured from the Open Society Institute. eIFL-FOSS advocates free and open source software (FOSS) use in libraries in developing and transition countries. Funding from the Open Society Institute for this program will help eIFL.net raise awareness and understanding of FOSS across its membership, facilitate eIFL.net member engagement with FOSS development communities, and undertake projects of special significance to eIFL.net members. The initial project within the eIFL-FOSS program is a support project for migration to FOSS integrated library systems (ILS).

For further information on the eIFL-FOSS program and regular updates of progress visit eIFL-FOSS or join the eIFL-FOSS announcement email list.

First workshops of the Greenstone Southern Africa Pilot Project

Once the nomination of the Southern African institutions which will serve as the major local network points of the project has been complete, Stefan Boddie, from DL Consulting, will be running the first series of workshops on the installation of Greenstone sofware for digital libraries. He will start his training at the sub-regional centre for the project, the University of Namibia, on August 6th and will continue visits to the national centers in the other participating countries: the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) on August 9-11, the National University Library and the Lesotho College of Education Library in Maseru (Lesotho) on August 12-15 and the Bunda College Library in Lilongwe (Malawi) on August 17-18. We will keep our readership informed on progress and additional information.

Call for nominations for eIFL FOSS country coordinators open

Each eIFL consortium is being asked to nominate an eIFL-FOSS coordinator from their country. This coordinator will serve as the main point of contact with the larger eIFL-FOSS body, and act as a point of contact for open source software community building in the libraries in their country. The coordinator should currently work in some capacity with the library IT infrastructure in one of the local eIFL consortium libraries. Details about the required qualifications, responsabilities and submission procedures are available in the document attached. The deadline to submit your nominations is July 20, 2007.

Launch of Greenstone Southern Africa Pilot project

The development of digital libraries is an important concern in facilitating access, sharing and preservation of content. eIFL believes that the open source Greenstone Digital Library (GSDL) software suite (www.greenstone.org), whose development and distribution are coordinated by the University of Waikato in New Zealand, provides a unique resource to promote the development of DLs in Africa in keeping with our objective of empowering libraries through Open Source solutions.

For this reason, we have agreed to execute the Greenstone Southern Africa Pilot Project on behalf of the Koha Foundation (U.S.A.) which is providing US$50,000 for implementation of the project. The University of Waikato and DL Consulting, a private company in New Zealand working closely with the Greenstone project, will provide consultant staff to the pilot project as support in kind. eIFL has asked Mr John Rose, a retired UNESCO staff member who has been working with the Greenstone team in its efforts to promote Greenstone support and participation in developing countries, to serve as the international coordinator for this pilot project. Additional details of this project will be provided on an ongoing basis.

Library Geeks Podcast

Library Geeks podcast which just went live covered eIFl-FOSS meeting in Cupramontana, to listen to, please go to: onebiglibrary.net/geeks.