The eIFL-FOSS ILS project received a strong response to its call-for-participation. Applications were received from 12 countries representing 11 language groups, and from institutions ranging from 10 thousand volumes to more than 3.5 million volumes. The breadth of applications made the selection of a small set of pilots for the project very difficult, but eventually we arrived at the following sites.

Pilot sites

Each pilot institution will install and evaluate either the Koha or Evergreen FOSS ILS. The technical lead from each pilot institution will participate in an initial workshop to be held in Yerevan, Armenia on 10-11 June 2008. As the pilots progress from initial deployment of their chosen ILS, to evaluation of its suitability, and eventual migration of data, the participants will be working collectively on support documentation in order to gather their experiences and learning to share with each other and other interested libraries across eIFL.net. All libraries that submitted an application to become a pilot were invited to join the main email discussion list for the project so that they can continue to benefit from the experiences of the pilot sites throughout the life of the project. Case studies of each pilot's experience will be published in due course. The pilot sites are:

Koha sites:

• An-Najah National University Library, Palestine (West Bank)
• Library of the Faculty of Medicine Pharmacy and Dentistry, University of Bamako, Mali
• Mzuzu University, Malawi
• National Scientific Library, Georgia

Evergreen sites:

• Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences, Armenia
• Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, Nepal
• Midlands State University Library, Zimbabwe