News

On October 21-25, 2008 The 5th Anniversary International Conference "Central Asia - 2008: Internet and Library and Information Resources in Science, Education, Culture and Business" took place in Fergana city (Uzbekistan)

On October 21-25, 2008 The "Central Asia - 2008: Internet and Library and Information Resources in Science, Education, Culture and Business" 5th Anniversary International Conference took place in Fergana city (Uzbekistan). 170 persons, including representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, USA and Uzbekistan, participated in the Central Asia 2008 Conference. Director of the library of American Universiry in Central Asia and eIFL IP and eIFL OA country coordinator in Kyrgyzstan Safia Rafikova participated in this Conference. She presented two reports: "Electronic Information for Libraries - eIFL in Kyrgyzstan" and Information Technologies in Libraries of Kyrgyzstan - creation of corporate electronic resources".

The Initiative of Open Access and Copyright Issues in using Electronic Resources workshop

On 20-21 October, 2008 two-day workshop on Open Access and Copyright Issues in using electronic resources for the librarians of Osh Regional Library, academic libraries of Osh State University and Kyrgyz-Uzbek University was held. The main instructor of the workshop was Safia Rafikova, Director of the library of American Universiry in Central Asia and eIFL IP and eIFL OA country coordinator in Kyrgyzstan. Total number of participants was 19, including the library directors, their deputies, heads of the departments, programmers and administrators. During the workshop S.K. Rafikova presented short review of International Initiatives on Open Access (Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, Budapest Open Access Initiative), told about eIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) program activity in Kyrgyzstan and dwelt on a question concerning creation of full-text electronic resources in libraries by the example of The AUCA Electronic Library and Corporate repository of abstracts of dissertations of Kyrgyzstan's scientists. The second day was devoted to discussion of copyright issues in using electronic resources and providing open access to them. Participants learned how to use electronic databases of scientific publications (EBSCO, Cambridge Journals, AGORA etc.) available thanks to participation of Kyrgyz libraries in eIFL project. Workshop agenda, TV clip about the workshop and Workshop materials (in Russian) are here: http://www.bik.org.kg/en/news/69/

Open Access workshop in Minsk, Belarus

On October 20-21, 2008, eIFL.net, Fundamental Library of Belarus State University and BelLibNet organised Open Access Awareness Raising workshop in Minsk, Belarus. As a result a national project modeling the Netherlands Cream of Science is being planned by Universities and the National library. Presentations (in English and Russian) will appear soon here: http://www.library.bsu.by/?vpath=/about/news/2008/10/17/

The Serbian Citation Index – SCIndeks 1.6. published

The stable version of SCIndeks: the Serbian Citation Index, internally signed as 1.6., was published at the new permanent address http://scindeks.nb.rs/. This extended version contains all papers published from 2002 onwards in more than 350 indexed national professional journals. Articles from more than 130 journals are available in Open Access. SCIndeks is a service of the Centre for Evaluation in Education and Science in cooperation with National Library of Serbia, financed by the Ministry of Science and Technological Development of the Serbian Government. And it is a part of integrated system of bibliographic scientific information of Serbia. The intensive activities to extend SCIndeks coverage retroactively to the period 2001-2002 for all journals and the period of 1996-2002 for humanities journals, are in due course. Almost half of papers from this period has already been uploaded and are visible in SCIndeks. Journals from the field of social sciences are covered since 1991 previously. The planned total coverage is to be achieved before March 2009. Version 1.6. is significantly improved in comparison to SCIndeks beta. Through the system of links it is highly integrated with other domestic and international databases, both at the level of articles and references cited. SCIndeks is equipped with About and Help, allowing users to achieve fast and detailed insight into the content and features of the application, as well as how to use it. Registered users have additional services - My SCIndeks. During October and November there are a series of presentations of SCIndeks at the universities in Serbia. The aim of these discussions is to make researchers better acquainted with the potentials of SCIndeks and to give them opportunity to make comments and suggestions regarding further SCIndeks development.

eIFL.net is joining the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association, OASPA offers a forum for bringing together the entire community of Open Access journal publishers. OASPA mission is to represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journal publishers globally in all scientific, technical and scholarly disciplines. This mission will be carried out through exchanging information, setting standards, advancing models, advocacy, education, and the promotion of innovation. Through a shared interest in developing appropriate business models, tools and standards to support OA publishing, OASPA can ensure a prosperous and sustainable future to the benefit of the members and the scholarly communities they serve. SPARC Europe supports OASPA during its initial phase of operation. eIFL.net applied for the Associate (non-voting) Membership. OASPA welcomes OA professional publishing organizations, OA scientist/scholar publishers – individuals or small groups of scientists/scholars that publish usually a single scholarly journal in their field of study and other organizations who provide significant services and/or support for OA publishing. http://www.oaspa.org/

Open Access Awareness Raising workshop in Yerevan, Armenia

On October 15-16, 2008, eIFL.net, Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and Electronic Library Consortium of Armenia (ELCA) organised Open Access Awareness Raising workshop in Yerevan. Fundamental Library of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia supported by the Open Society Assistance Foundation created a platform for high quality newly launched Open Access journals (Armenian Scientific Journals - Open Access: http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/?q=node/55 and more information is here: Armenian Scientific Journals - Open Access: http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/?q=node/55 and more information is here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_07_24_two-new-open-access). At the workshop Armenian journal of mathematics and Armenian journal of physics were presented to the directors of research institutes and scholarly publishers. There are plans to publish more Open Access journals (first of all in the area of biology and chemistry) and a national Open Access strategy is being discussed. Presentations (in English and Russian) and photos from the workshop are here: http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/?q=node/66.

Events celebrating Open Access Day in eIFL countries

October 14, 2008 was the world’s first Open Access Day. The founding partners were SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science. Open Access Day helped to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public (http://openaccessday.org/). Information about Open Access Day activities in Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mozambique, Poland, South Africa, Sudan. Azerbaijan: Khazar University Library Information centre translated "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber into Azeri language (http://www.khazar.org/library/news.shtm#news1). Khazar University Library Information Center administrates Khazar University Institutional Repository (KUIR) - the fist institutional repository in Azerbaijan showcasing the research outputs of Khazar University staff (http://dspace.khazar.org; more information about the repository is here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_18_khazar-university). Contact person: Tatyana Zayseva, Library Information Centre Director, tzayseva[@]gmail.com. Lithuania: Lithuanian research libraries consortium together with Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science and the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education organized the workshop about Open access in the Lithuanian Academy of Science on October, 14, 2008. Workshop program is available online (http://www.lmba.lt/doc/seminaras_spalio14.doc) and information about open access is also on the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium website (http://www.lmba.lt/OA/liet/oa.htm). Contact person: Dr. Gintare Tautkeviciene, Kaunas University of Technology, eIFL Open Access country coordinator, gintare.tautkeviciene[@]ktu.lt. Macedonia: On the occasion of the International Open Access Day, Metamorphosis Foundation sent an open letter to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Government of the Republic of Macedonia calling them to instigate an initiative for systematic, prompt and efficient resolution for the acute lack of educational contents available online (e-contents) in the local languages in Macedonia (http://www.metamorphosis.org.mk/content/view/1264/61/lang,en/). Contact person: Bardhyl Jashari, Metamorphosis Foundation, bjasari[@]soros.org.mk. Moldova: A blog about Open Access in Romanian language and a directory of Open Access Moldavian resources were launched on the Open Access Day: http://oarm.blog2x2.net/. Natalia Cheradi, eIFL Open Access coordinator in Moldova, Consortium eIFL Direct Moldova, spoke about Open Access on the National Radio and National TV (TV-4 channel). Contact person: Natalia Cheradi, the Open Access Coordinator for Moldova, cheradi[@]lib.ase.md. Mozambique: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, wrote an article about Open Access to be published in the national newspaper and participated in the Radio Mozambique show. She also translated "We Support Open Access Flyer" featuring a librarian, teacher, funder, student and patient advocate, into Portuguese language. Earlier this year Aissa Mitha Issak organised a workshop about Institutional Repositories and Open Access in Maputo, Mozambique. The major outcome of this workshop was a project on the shared open repository for Mozambique, gathering the intellectual production of the academic and research staff in the country funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and at the pilot stage covering three institutions. The University of Minho will assure the technical support. More information: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_09_17_workshop-on. Contact person: Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique, amissak[@]apolitecnica.ac.mz. Poland: Bożena Bednarek-Michalska, eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Torun, Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries, translated into Polish "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber and "We Support Open Access Flyer"; different institutions put this information with Open Access Day icon on their portals and web-sites on October 14. Bożena Bednarek-Michalska sent letters to the ministries, Universities and other public institutions about Open Access. Web-sites about Open Access Day: http://www.ebib.info/content/view/1568/. ICM (Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling), Warsaw, Poland posted blog posts about Open Access Day: http://boa.icm.edu.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/ and http://creativecommons.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/. South Africa: In celebration of Open Access Day, Durban University of Technology Libraries hosted an informal open session on the Institutional Repository and how researchers can get their research ready for submission into the Repository. Contact person: Pam Govender, pamgoven[@]dut.ac.za; Web & IT Support Officer, DUT Library, ML Sultan Library, http://library.dut.ac.za. University of Pretoria had an Open Access happening of which the message was "You are in good company if you support open access" with posters all over campus, buttons, a message on the university's main web page (http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=2843&articleID=997 a powerpoint slide show running constantly in the library (http://hdl.handle.net/2263/7550), students with OA t-shirts speaking to other students. Two open sessions on the open access research repository were organised and attended by 60 researchers from across faculty. Contact people: Monica Hammes, Assistant Director: Open Scholarship, Quality Assurance and UP Centenary Academic Information Service, University of Pretoria, Monica.Hammes[@]up.ac.za and Ina Smith, Digital Research Repository (UPSpace) Manager & eApplication Specialist, Department of Library Services, University of Pretoria, Ina.Smith[@]up.ac.za. University of Johannesburg Library and Information centre promoted Open Access day (UJ Science Librarian Blog: http://ujsciencelibrarianblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/open-access-day-14-october-2008.html and UJ Librarians News: http://ujlibrariansnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/open-access-day-october-14-2008.html). Contact person: Pavlinka Kovatcheva, Subject Librarian: Sciences, University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus, pkovatcheva[@]uj.ac.za. Sudan: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, published at the web-site of the Open University of Sudan (http://www.ous.edu.sd/) selected translations from English into Arabic about benefits of Open Access to contribute to the awareness raising among Arabic countries. These documents will be also disseminated via the web-site of the Ministry of higher education of Sudan. Contact person: Abdalaziz Gabir, Open University of Sudan Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Sudan, abdalazizgabir[@]yahoo.com. More information about events celebrating Open Access Day: http://oad.simmons.edu/oadwiki/Events_celebrating_Open_Access_Day. We are pleased to announce that next year’s Open Access Week will be in October 2009, dates to be confirmed. To hear about the latest development please complete the form here: http://www.formspring.com/forms/?377428-uGOWZXQybK http://openaccessday.org/

DRIVER and eIFL.net sign Memorandum of Understanding

DRIVER and eIFL.net - Electronic Information for Libraries - have identified demand for cooperation in order to progress and enhance the provision, visibility and application of European research outputs through digital repositories. DRIVER is a joint initiative of European stakeholders, co-financed by the European Commission, to establish a flexible, robust, and scalable infrastructure for all European and world-wide digital repositories, managing scientific information in an Open Access model increasingly demanded by researchers, funding organisations and other stakeholders. DRIVER's mission is to expand its content base, supporting the global research community with high quality research output, including textual research papers and complex forms of scholarly electronic publication. Rima Kupryte, Director of eIFL.net, said 'eIFL.net and DRIVER share the vision that research institutions should contribute actively and cooperatively to a global, interoperable, trusted and long-term data and service infrastructure based on Open Access digital repositories. This agreement includes joint approaches to consolidation of national communities for the European repository network and active joint dissemination of best practices of Open Access scholarly communication in countries and regions without such formal policy.' Norbert Lossau, Scientific Coordinator of DRIVER and Director of the Goettingen State and University Library commented: "DRIVER can only be successful through collaborating with all relevant stakeholders and by including all countries. eIfL has an excellent track record in supporting developing countries. Cooperation with eIFL will contribute to the joint vision through an established communication network and enthusiastic pioneers in many countries." PRESS RELEASE: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/news/press-area/2008-09-29

Sharing plans for the Open Access day - October 14

Azerbaijan: Tatyana Zayseva, Library Information Center Director, Khazar University tzayseva[@]gmail.com: Khazar University library translated "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber into Azeri language: http://www.khazar.org/library/news.shtm#news1 Lithuania: Dr. Gintare Tautkeviciene, Kaunas University of Technology, gintare.tautkeviciene[@]ktu.lt Lithuanian research libraries consortium together with Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science and the Center for Quality Assessment in Higher Education organize the workshop about Open access in the Lithuanian Academy of Science on October, 14, 2008. Workshop program is available online: http://www.lmba.lt/doc/seminaras_spalio14.doc. Information about open access is also on the Lithuanian Research Library Consortium website: http://www.lmba.lt/OA/liet/oa.htm. Moldova: Consortium eIFL Direct Moldova - Natalia Cheradi, the Open Access Coordinator for Moldova: - A blog about Open Access in Romanian language and a directory of Open Access Moldovian resources will be launched on the Open Access Day: http://oarm.blog2x2.net/ - Natalia Cheradi, the Open Access Coordinator for Moldova, will speak about Open Access on the National Radio and National TV (TV-4 channel) - News from other libraries and about other events are coming. Mozambique - Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique: - Aissa Mitha Issak will write an article about Open Access to publish in the national newspaper (in the Wednesdays cultural supplement where they also publish academic and research articles) - Aissa Mitha Issak plan to go on a radio show - Radio Mozambique - on the 14th and speak about the Open Access. The format is still discussed - either debates about access to information, or an interview. - Aissa Mitha Issak is translating "We Support Open Access Flyer" featuring a librarian, teacher, funder, student and patient advocate, into Portuguese language (http://openaccessday.org/wp-content/uploads/we-support-oa-flyer.pdf) and will share the translation. Poland: Bożena Bednarek-Michalska, eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Torun, Poznan Foundation of Scientific Libraries Information campaign about Open Access: - Bożena Bednarek-Michalska translated into Polish "A very brief introduction to Open Access" by Peter Suber and "We Support Open Access Flyer"; - different institutions will put this information with Open Access Day icon on their portals and web-sites on October 14; - Bożena Bednarek-Michalska will send letters to the ministries, Universities and other public institutions about Open Access. http://www.ebib.info/content/view/1568/ http://boa.icm.edu.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/ http://creativecommons.pl/blog/2008/10/open-access-day/ South Africa: Pam Govender, pamgoven[@]dut.ac.za; Web & IT Support Officer, DUT Library, ML Sultan Library, http://library.dut.ac.za: In celebration of Open Access Day, DUT Libraries will host an informal open session on the Institutional Repository and how researchers can get their research ready for submission into the Repository. Ina Smith, Ina.Smith[@]up.ac.za; University of Pretoria: 2 open sessions on UPSpace, the open access digital research repository of the University of Pretoria: what UPSpace is all about, and how researchers can benefit from making their research available on this repository. This includes conference papers, data sets, articles, video clips, sound clips, special collections donated, newspaper clippings etc. This is our way of supporting/ celebrating Open Access Day on 14 October. Sudan: Abdalaziz Gabir, abdalazizgabir[@]yahoo.com Open University of Sudan Library, Open Access Manager, Ministry of higher education About benefits of Open Access at the web-site of the Open University of Sudan - selected translations from English to Arabic to contribute to the awareness raising among Arabic countries http://www.ous.edu.sd/ There is a downloadable Open Access Day icon that you can post on your site together with text promoting the event, as well as downloadable half skyscraper and downloadable horizontal banner: http://openaccessday.org/promote-this-event/ SPARC encourages downloading their brochures: http://www.arl.org/sparc/publications/brochures/index.shtml Folks from the media are echoing our wish to have a good record of the events on OADAY and have asked for us to make pictures available that they might include in news coverage. So, please add photographs and videos (if appropriate) to your preparation check list and plan to upload under a CC license to flickr.com, with the tag "oaday2008." All these and much more are at the wikispace of Open Access Day http://oaday.wikispaces.com/ Please share your plans with us or join this wikispace. And don't forget to follow the news at http://openaccessday.org

Khazar University Institutional Repository (KUIR), Azerbaijan

KUIR is the fist institutional repository in Azerbaijan. Administrated by Khazar University Library Information Center, the KUIR showcases the research outputs of Khazar University staff, http://dspace.khazar.org. Materials in the repository are selected by the university’s research faculty. Pre- and post prints of scholarly articles from the Azerbaijan Archeology, Journal of Azerbaijani Studies and Khazar Journal of Mathematics are the first records in the academic journals collection as well as presentations and conference materials from the Library Information Center. The repository managers received training and advise during the study visit of repository managers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan to Ukraine hosted by Informatio Consortium and National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” and organized by eIFL.net on June 18-21, 2008 (http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/oa-news/2008_06_30_study-visit-repository"). Contact person: Tatyana Zayseva, Library Information Center Director, tzayseva[@]gmail.com

Workshop on Institutional Repositories and Open Access in Mozambique

A Workshop on Institutional Repositories and Open Access was held in Maputo, Mozambique, in July from 28 to 30, 2008. 30 participants from higher education and research institutions from Maputo, the capital city and also from Beira and Nampula attended the workshop. On the July 30th an open session was organized about Open Access and a broader audience attended this event. The workshop was facilitated by Eloy Rodrigues, director of Documentation Services in Minho University, Portugal, which one of the champions of Open Access in Portugal. Topics covered during the workshop included the origins, scope and definitions of Open Access; the two roads for Open Access, journals and repositories; creation and development of institutional repositories and experience gained working with the repository of the of Minho University, Portugal. Presentations from the workshop in Portuguese are here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/workspaces/eifl-oa/training-capacity/about-open-access In terms of financing, this was a joint activity, involving eIFL.net, which supported the travel expenses of the facilitator, Universidade Politécnica in Mozambique, which covered the accommodation expenses for the facilitator and also provided the venue for the workshop and Eduardo Mondlane University/ Documentation Services Directorate, which covered the perdiem costs. The major outcome of this workshop was the intention of building a joint repository for Mozambique, gathering the intellectual production of the academic and research staff in the country. This repository will be funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and, at the start will be covering three institutions. It’s hoped that, in the future, more institutions will join the project. The technical support will be assured by the University of Minho. Aissa Mitha Issak, eIFL country coordinator in Mozambique

Open repository in Birzeit university: Palestine-Norway Partnership

Birzeit university library in Palestine, Tromsø university library and Telemark university college library in Norway have decided to work together in order to promote the development and establishment of an Open research archive for scientific publications and master and PhD theses from Birzeit university. An open access research archive will give global access to doctoral and master thesis and scientific publications produced at Birzeit University. The partners will meet in Tromsø in Norway 28th until 31st of October 2008 in order to discuss the plans and a major application to the Norwegian Government for funding the common project. Contacts: Birzeit university library: Library director Diana Sayej library[@]birzeit.edu Tromsø university library: Library director Helge Salvesen helge.salvesen[@]ub.uit.no Telemark university college: Library director Frode Bakken frode.bakken[@]hit.no

Approaching eIFL Open Access from different languages perspective

We are going to facilitate information and knowledge exchange about Open Access in different languages. As to the tools - as the first step we have just transformed eiflrussian - Russian speaking eIFL community mailing list - into Open Access discussion forum in Russian language and if you want to be part of it please subscribe here: http://www.eifl.net:8080/mailman/listinfo/eiflrussian or send a message to iryna.kuchma[@]eifl.net. There is also the first edition of the registry of publications and presentations about Open Access in Russian here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/training/readingr. Please send us the links to the materials which are missing. Another language we are going to approach is French. French speaking colleagues - could you please help us with the links to the most important articles and resources about Open Access in French? Do you need a French language discussion list?

DSpace Global Outreach Committee

Elena Okhezina, Ural State University Library and eIFL Open Access country coordinator in Russia, and Iryna Kuchma, eIFL Open Access program manager were invited to join DSpace Global Outreach Committee. The primary goal of the DSpace Global Outreach Committee (DGOC) is to help facilitate more regional support, trainings, user group meetings, resources for the DSpace user community world-wide. The committee’s kick off meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 23.

Blogs about Open Access from eIFL countries

http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/gray-area (in English) Gray Area: Opening up scholarly publishing by Eve Gray, publishing consultant and Open Access advocate in South Africa http://boa.icm.edu.pl/ (in Polish) BOA: Blog o Open Access pisze Justyna Hofmokl, socjolog, koordynator Creative Commons Polska http://cybermongol.blogspot.com (in Mongolian) Cybermon's blog for your access to knowledge by L.Gantulga, System Administrator, Mongolian Academy of Sciences http://moj-blog.org/open-access/ RSS Feed aggregator about Open Access created by Vedran Vucic, Serbia If you are from developing or transitional countries and have a blog about Open Access, please send a link to iryna.kuchma[@]eifl.net

The Open Access Documentary Project

Intelligent Television and BioMed Central are co-producing a set of videos celebrating the benefits of open access to scientific and medical research. Principal production has begun in London, New York, and at CERN in Geneva, featuring video interviews with activists, publishers, and consumers of scientific and medical information in the developed and developing world. The fist video clips feature Science Commons Executive Director John Wilbanks and SPARC Executive Director Heather Joseph. Heather Joseph mentioned eIFL.net activities telling about the equitable distribution of knowledge. http://www.intelligenttelevision.com/index.php/site/production/the-open-access-documentary-project/ In 2007 the Open Society Institute awarded a grant to support the Project.

Open Access and Web 2.0: Improving the scientific communications" workshop

On August 2-3, 2008 Kyrgyzstan Library Information Consortium in collaboration with eIFL.net and American University of Central Asia organized the workshop "Open Access and Web 2.0: Improving the scientific communications " for Kyrgyz librarians. Seminar presentations (all in Russian) are here: http://www.bik.org.kg/ru/news/64/. The Kyrgyzstan Libraries Information Consortium coordinates open access projects in Kyrgyzstan. Among them a pilot open repository in the American University of Central Asia (http://elibrary.auca.kg/dspace/), a national open repository for ETDs – CRAD (http://krad.bik.org.kg/) implemented by 12 leading academic and university libraries of Bishkek and 2 university libraries from Jalalabad and Karakol. There are plans to enrich this repository with any scholarly content materials not only from Kyrgyzstan but also from Central Asia. This new shared open repository for Central Asia will be discussed at the 9-th International conference "Issyk Kul 2008: Libraries and democratization of society", that will take place on the 1st to 5th of October 2008 in Kyrgyzstan (http://conference.bik.org.kg). Among other plans: launching Open Access declaration in Kyrgyzstan to encourage the funders of the research to mandate open access, developing value-added services on top of the repositories (highlighting the best national medical researchers, publications in psychology, etc.), creating a directory of open access scholarly content in Russian language, publishing and disseminating advocacy kits in Russian language about open access for scientists, scholars and students, creating intellectual property policies in research institutions to support open access self-archiving, approaching National Certification Commission (issuing scientific degrees in the country) to cooperate in the CRAD project (ETD repository), encouraging University rectors to practice open access and cooperating with editorial boards of academic journals to upload published articles into the shared open repository, finding synergies and exchanging expertise in open access projects and distance education in the libraries and Universities. Open Access was also presented at the BarCamp Central Asia 2008 – the first non-conference of such kind in Central Asia (the presentation in Russian is here: http://www.slideshare.net/irynak/ss-539771) that took place the same days – August 2-3, 2008 in the American University of Central Asia. BarCamp is an international network of user generated non-conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. New media professionals and bloggers from Central Asia and other former Soviet Union countries attended this event (http://barcampasia.net).

eIFL.net signed Seoul Declaration calling for open access to publicly-funded research

Civil society organizations participating in the OECD 2008 Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy (Seoul, June 17-18, 2008) have issued the Seoul Declaration (June 16, 2008): http://thepublicvoice.org/events/seoul08/signatures.pdf

Ukrainian publisher and scholarly society cooperate with Connexions

Nauka Publishers based in Kyiv, Ukraine, specialised in educational and scientific literature, and the Center for American Literary Studies in Ukraine at the Institute of literature after Taras Shevchenko of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine started cooperation with Connexions – an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the Web (http://cnx.org/). They published two modules and courses: Contemporary Media Systems and Political Communications (http://cnx.org/content/col10539/latest/ based on Ukrainian translation of the book by Daniel C. Hallin Comparing media systems: three models of media and politics supported by International Renaissance Foundation and the British Council Ukraine) and Discourse of Romantism in the US Literature (http://cnx.org/content/col10545/latest/). Andriy Ischenko, director of Nauka Publishers, is devoted to promote and practice open access and open education to improve the access to and distribution of education and scholarly materials. He is also happy that one of the most prominent Ukrainian researchers – Professor Tamara Denysova, head of the Center for American Literary Studies in Ukraine, supports open collaboration and knowledge sharing of educational materials and cooperates with Connexions. Andriy Ischenko learned about Connexions at the seminar about open education for academic publishers organised by International Renaissance Foundation and Open Society Institute and lead by the founder of Connexions Dr.Richard Baraniuk and its Executive Director Dr. Joel Thierstein.

Open Access Presentation at ZIBF Writers Workshop

Jasper Lee Maenzanise, Zimbabwe Open University and eIFL Open Access country coordinator, gave another presentation about open access movement at Zimbabwe Book Fair Writers Workshop on 29th of July 2008. While tertiary institutions are well informed about open access, there is still a dearth of knowledge among most people regarding this new paradigm. It was felt that there is need for more open access workshops that would involve both theory and practical demos on paradigm of scholarly communication and how to access and use some of the open access resource. Such workshops should also include high level Government Officials if the nation is going to mandate Open Access. And this is certainly being planned for through the Research Council of Zimbabwe's (RCZ) Informatics Committee. It was also expressed that most writers would like to contribute their artistic and literally works and make use of the Creative Commons Licence particularly where the local publishing industry is facing several limitations in terms of publishing their works. Details of how they could go the Creative Commons route would be communicated through the Writers Association and the ZIBF Office. It is pragmatic that more OA road shows and workshops should be planned and implemented as a matter of urgency.

Two new Open Access Journals from the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia

Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia launched two Open Access journals: Armenian Journal of Mathematics (http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/journal/Math/index.html) and Armenian Journal of Physics (http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/journal/Phys/index.html). Armenian Scientific Journals - Open Access: http://www.flib.sci.am/eng/?q=node/55 The Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation in Armenia has granted the Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) with a one year grant to develop an Open Access based scholarly communication system for the national academic community. The Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences is the main and largest repository of scholarly publication in the Republic of Armenia. The National Academy of Sciences houses 29 research institutions and is an overall leading producer of scientific content. The National Academy of Sciences publishes 13 peer-reviewed journals with an international reputation. The Open Society Institute has been supporting the implementation of digital technologies in Armenia in the last years and this new project will seek to raise awareness and encourage alternative solutions to the traditional system of scholarly communication based on peer reviewed academic journals by commercial publishers. The grant period will run through the whole 2008 and will look into Open Access publishing procedures, institutional repositories and self-archiving toolsets for the local research community. In addition, the project will publish 12 issues of an electronic journal mainly focused on Mathematics and Physics. Tigran Zargaryan, director of the Fundamental Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences, will coordinate the project. Chief editor for the Open Access journal 'Armenian Mathematical Journal' is Professor Anry Nersessian, and the chief editor for the Open Access journal 'Armenian Physical Journal' is Professor Vladimir Aroutiounian.

Open Access: Exploring Scholarly Communication – workshop in Moldova

Consortium eIFL Direct Moldova and eIFL.net organised a workshop Open Access: Exploring Scholarly Communication on June 23-24 in Moldova Economics Academy, Chisinau. Open Access is gaining the momentum in Moldova. National Council for Accreditation and Attestation maintains an Open Access ETDs collection with 855 current theses, including 94 theses for the degree of doctor habilitate (http://www.cnaa.acad.md/en/theses/). There are at least 10 Open Access journals published in Moldova by the scientific and research organizations of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova (some of them are listed here: http://www.asm.md/?go=activitatea&csdt=2&new_language=1). Presentations from the workshop are available here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/training/2008-chisinau

Study visit of repository managers to Ukraine

On June 18-21 Informatio Consortium, National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” and eIFL.net organised a study visit of repository managers from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan to Ukraine. Together with their Ukrainian colleagues they discussed strategies for securing faculty and administration support, management, copyright and interoperability issues, etc. Presentations from the study visit Open repositories are here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/training/2008-kyiv

The advantages of Open Access presented at the Zimbabwe International Bookfair

On June 13 2007 Kathy Matsika, Chief librarian, National University of Science and Technology, and head of Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium presented Open Access: advantages and disadvantages for users, librarians and rightsholders at the Writers, Librarians and Copyright Workshop during Zimbabwe International Bookfair in Bulawayo. She focused her presentation at the advantages of Open Access to authors/writers/academics and users. Most of the participants – writers, teachers, lecturers from local Tertiary Colleges, librarians from universities, Tertiary Colleges, schools and public libraries, and academics from the two universities in Bulawayo – heard for the first time about Open Access and the presentation received and made the desired impact – generated a lot of positive debates.

A meeting on Open Access in European Union and Lithuania

Under the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science, with the help of the Lithuanian Research Libraries Consortium a meeting on Open Access in European Union and Lithuania was held at the office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on May 7, 2008. Agenda of the meeting: http://www.lmba.lt/doc/agenda.doc Power point presentations: Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication by David Prosser, SPARC Europe Director: http://www.lmba.lt/ppt/SPARC%20Europe%20Vilnius.ppt Open Access in Lithuania by Vilius Kučiukas, KTU ITDC: http://www.lmba.lt/ppt/LABT-OA-2008-05-07-Kuciukas.ppt (http://www.lmba.lt/reng/angl/eindex.htm)

Open Access Awareness Raising workshop in Georgia

On May 14-15, 2008, Georgian Integrated Library & Information System Consortium (GILISC) and eIFL.net organised a workshop Open Access: New Models for Scholarly Communication. Hosted by Ilia Chavchavadze State University the workshop addressed Open Access policies and recommendations and highlighted the benefits of Open Access journals and Open repositories. Publishers of Georgian Open Access journals – Computer Science and Telecommunications, Education Sciences and Psychology, Physics, Jurisprudence, Musicology and Cultural Science, Germanistische Studien all published by Georgian Internet Academy (http://gesj.internet-academy.org.ge/) and Bulletin of the Tbilisi International Centre of Mathematics and Informatics (TICMI) published by the I.Vekua Institute of Applied Mathematics, I.Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Georgian Academy of Natural Sciences (http://www.emis.de/journals/TICMI/blt/bulletin.htm) shared their experience in publishing Open Access journals in Georgia. And Georgian Internet Academy is open to collaboration with other journal publishers in the country suggesting them to use its publishing software and ICT support. The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia (http://www.nplg.gov.ge/ ) presented the first open repository in the country with more than 200 full texts dissertations. Scholars and researchers, editors-in-chief of peer review scientific and scholarly journals and University librarians discussed how to launch a new Open Access Journal or to convert a subscription based journal to Open Access as well as management of Open repositories, copyright and open content licenses. International cooperation and research development – better quality research and education – were mentioned as the benefits of Open Access projects in Georgia during the round table discussion “How to move forward – Open Access Policies, Open Access repositories, Open Access Journals”. Libraries seem to be the best managers of open repositories, because they are good in metadata and long-term preservation. Although there is still a need for adding English fields to the bibliographic descriptions and metadata fields (at the moment all bibliographic descriptions in the country are done in the language of the original document which is in most of the cases – Georgian language). And journal publishers are natural partners for the libraries to provide post-prints for open repositories. The workshop participants agreed to create an Open Access working group and to develop a pilot project for the national open repository with centrally managed infrastructure and virtually different repositories managed by institutions. Articles already published in the peer-reviewed journals are planned to be the initial content for this repository and annual reports of the Universities and research institutions will be used to identify the lists of these articles. New approaches to quality control were also addressed during the workshop and there was a suggestion that a University can announce a call for proposal for reviewing a yearly estimate number of articles published in this University and the editorial boards of the journals can provide peer-reviewing services to the University on the conditions defined by the University. Presentations from the workshop are available here: http://www.eifl.net/cps/sections/services/eifl-oa/training Contact person: Irakli Garibashvili, eIFL country coordinator, igar[at]hotmail.com, iraklig99[at]yahoo.com

Extended deadline for submission of abstracts to the International Conference on Open Access and Quality Assurance in Higher Education Libraries, organized by Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC)

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to 30 June 2008. The theme of the ZULC International Conference on Open Access and Quality Assurance in Higher Education libraries will include the following sub-themes for discussion: 1. Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education libraries in Africa 2. Open Access in higher education libraries 3. Library and Information Services (LIS) standards as quality assurance measures 4. Institutional Repositories (IRs) and quality assurance in higher education institutions 5. Quality Assurance in the preservation and archiving of digital documents 6. Open Access and quality information resources 7. Indigenous Knowledge Information Systems and Quality Assurance Deadlines: Submission of abstracts (approx. 300 words): 30 June 2008 Notification of selected abstracts: 16 July 2008 Submission of full paper PDF format (1500-2000 words) Plus 3 print copies: 31 August 2008 Abstracts must be sent electronically to: Mr. J L Maenzanise, Zimbabwe Open University: maenzanisejl [at] lis.zou.co.zw

Strategic Approach to Open Access in Nigeria

International Workshop On Open Access Repositories: New Models For Scholarly Communication

28th - 29th April, 2008, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Eighty-nine participants – policy makers and ICT experts from university and research institutes, scholars and researchers, editors-in-chief of peer reviewed scientific and scholarly journals, university and systems librarians - from forty-five institutions met at the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria to discuss a strategic approach to open access (OA), important for academia and society at large. A Communiqué issued after the workshop endorsed the open access model and made a set of recommendations for government and stakeholders. In addition to formulating policies for implementing and sustaining open institutional repositories, participants updated their knowledge of copyright issues and open content licenses and developed strategies for the promotion and marketing of institutional repositories.

The knowledge-sharing event was co-organised by the Department of Library and Information Science at Ahmadu Bello University, eIFL.net and the Nigerian University Libraries Consortium (NULIB). “NULIB’s mandate is only half fulfilled if we cannot also provide access to Nigerian scholarly output. That is why we are so excited about this workshop, which, through its advocacy and training, will encourage and enable Nigerian universities and research institutes to organise their scholarly output into institutional repositories that, through open access, will be available to many both within and outside the country”, said Professor Doris O. Bozimo, Chairperson of NULIB in her opening remarks.

“Communicating scholarly information through open access repositories provide the added advantages of faster publishing opportunities, greater visibility for authors and institutions and cheaper access”, said Victoria Okojie, President of the Nigerian Library Association, referring to the agreed need for a national policy on open access and institutional repositories. “The Nigerian Library Association supports open access and commits to promoting it within the Nigerian community. We endorse open access for all journals, dissertations and conference proceedings in the LIS sector in Nigeria. We shall continue to provide open access to our conference papers and shall employ all legitimate means to encourage our members to archive their pre-prints and post-prints in open access, OAI-compliant archives. Open access repositories provide an excellent opportunity for researchers and librarians in Nigeria to gain leverage, and to leapfrog and become a part of an international community of researchers.”

David Prosser, Director of SPARC Europe commented, “In organising this exciting workshop, the Nigerian academic community has taken an important and timely step towards ensuring that the fruits of Nigerian research are made more widely visible, both within Nigeria and worldwide. By embracing open access and making a commitment to institutional repositories, the participants recognised the great benefits that can come from sharing scholarly resources. I look forward to working further with the participants to build on the success of the workshop.”

“The next step is for policy developments within individual universities, as well as in the research sector as a whole. It has been proven that policies mandating open access to publicly funded research enhance access to, and greater use of research findings, increase R&D efficiency, accelerate innovation and stimulate the economy”, said Iryna Kuchma, eIFL Open Access Program Manager.

Several open access initiatives are already underway in Nigeria. Kaduna State University and the University of Benin (Pharmacotherapy Group, Faculty of Pharmacy) both publish open access journals. Academic Journals, a Lagos-based publisher, currently has twenty OA journals and Bioline International hosts eleven OA titles from Nigeria. Ezra Shiloba Gbaje from Ahmadu Bello University runs the first pilot open access institutional repository in Nigeria, a second pilot will soon be launched by Emmanuel Babatunde Ajala of Kenneth Dike Library, University of Ibadan.

The workshop Communiqué recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria develop a multi-level strategic plan of action and establish a National Coordinating Committee for open access journals and institutional repositories in Nigeria. Stakeholders are encouraged to source and to make available funding for open access and institutional repository projects.

“Challenges in realising the open access model in Nigeria include lack of awareness by stakeholders and lack of appropriate implementation policies, hence the need for this workshop”, said Ezra Shiloba Gbaje. “By bringing together stakeholders from different institutions and different parts of Nigeria, the workshop has sown the seed of the open access model. Hopefully, this seed when well nurtured will germinate and blossom for the benefit of Nigeria and the world at large.”

More information and presentations from the workshop are here: www.nulib.net

eIFL Open Access mailing list

If you want to learn and share more about Open Access in developing and transition countries, we invite you to subscribe to eIFL Open Access mailing list – please send a subscription request to iryna.kuchma[at]eifl.net.

Call for Papers: Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC) International Conference on Open Access and Quality Assurance in Higher Education Libraries, 25-26 September 2008

The theme of the ZULC International Conference on Open Access and Quality Assurance in Higher Education libraries will include the following sub-themes for discussion: 1. Quality Assurance (QA) in higher education libraries in Africa 2. Open Access in higher education libraries 3. Library and Information Services (LIS) standards as quality assurance measures 4. Institutional Repositories (IRs) and quality assurance in higher education institutions 5. Quality Assurance in the preservation and archiving of digital documents 6. Open Access and quality information resources 7. Indigenous Knowledge Information Systems and Quality Assurance

eIFL OA becomes the moderator of the BOAI Forum

The BOAI Forum is a low-traffic moderated discussion list to support the Budapest Open Access Initiative. It was launched on February 14, 2003.
- Post
Subscribers may post messages to the list by sending email to boai-forum@ecs.soton.ac.uk.
- Subscribe
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the Forum, use our web-based form http://www.soros.org/openaccess/forum.shtml. Only those who have signed the BOAI may subscribe.
- Archive
Forum postings are available at the Forum Archive, and may be read by non-subscribers: http://www.soros.org/openaccess/forum.shtml. We thank the ECS Department of the University of Southampton for hosting the archive.
This discussion list was moderated by Peter Suber, Senior Researcher, SPARC, Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School, Research Professor of Philosophy, Earlham College. As of March 31, Iryna Kuchma, eIFL Open Access Program Manager, takes over moderation of this list.

eIFL OA Call for Cooperation

eIFL-OA Program seeks to enhance access to, and greater use of research findings, increase the efficiency of research and developments, accelerate use and innovation, stimulate economy. To achieve this, we apply the developing practices of Open Access as defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative.
eIFL-OA Program:
1. builds networks of Open Access repositories, Open Access journals, Open Access education materials;
2. provides training and advice on Open Access policies and practices;
3. empowers library professionals, scientists and scholars, educators and students to become open access advocates.
We invite libraries, Universities or any other research and development organisation from eIFL.net countries that are interested in Open Access projects, plan activities listed above, and ready to organise local and national events to make themselves known to the eIFL-OA Program Manager, Iryna Kuchma, iryna.kuchma[at]eifl.net.

Presentations from the SYReLIB Open Access and Institutional Repository Workshop in Syria available online

As part of the TEMPUS funded SYReLIB one year project where eIFL.net is a partner, librarians Morag Greig and William Nixon from University of Glasgow and Ian Johnson from Robert Gordon University delivered a workshop on Open Access basics and Institutional Repositories at the University of Aleppo, Syria, in December 2007. The local library communities from the University of Aleppo and Al-Baath University attended the workshop.
Presentations by the resource people are available online at http://hdl.handle.net/1905/761. Topics covered include Open Access; Open Access Advantages; Glasgow Case Study; Open Access Journals; Technology; Policy Issues; Advocacy; Copyright and Open Access Global Perspective.

eIFL Open Access Institutional Repositories Setting the Platform for International Co-operation

eIFL.net has launched a portal for 97 institutional repositories from 16 developing and transition countries (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Namibia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, Ukraine and Zimbabwe) and this number is growing. It now gives every visitor free access to 141,165 full-text research findings in a consistent and harmonised way. To visit the portal, please go to http://eifl.cq2.org

eIFL.net signed the Cape Town Open Education Declaration

eIFL.net joined early signatories list before this declaration will be formally launched on January 22. This declaration of principles is very closely aligned with eIFL's values and mission. Libraries are important in the "open education resources" area and we would like to congratulate the group on this initiative.

eIFL and DOAJ

eIFL is supporting the development and operation of the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) by becoming a member of the DOAJ. Today the DOAJ includes 2963 open access peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The Directory covers all subjects and languages. If you are interested in becoming a member, more information can be found here.

EBIB Open Access Conference

Elektroniczny Biuletyn Informacyjny Bibliotekarzy (EBIB) is organizing the Second Open Access Conference in Poland on December 7-9, following the first one coorganised by eIFL last year. The EBIB Open Access Conference will bring together senior representatives from the research and university communities in Poland as well as Open Access advocates internationally to discuss OA policies in Europe, technical and practical considerations in the setup of institutional repositories,open archives, the impact of open access journals in the publishing industry and legal related matters. Jan Andrzej Nikish, eIFL country coordinator for Poland and eIFL Advisory Board member, is on the Organizing Committee. Top speakers from SPARC Europe, DOAR, Creative Commons and University of Padova will be amongst the participants, and a few Polish Universities will share their Open Access related initiatives. The programme is available here .

Nigerian eIFL-OA coordinator recognized for his work on DSpace
Ezra Shiloba Gbaje has been awarded the Dr. James O. Daniel prize for the Most Innovative Library-based ICT project by the Nigerian Library Association (NLA) for his Open Access work. Ezra installed and configured Dspace for his university, Ahmadu Bello University. During the award presentation at the NLA meeting this September, Ezra demonstrated the role of an institutional repository and there was great interest from the 400 participants to learn more. eIFL is working with Ezra to organize an open access workshop in Nigeria next year which will build upon this enthusiasm.

Open Access Briefing Paper also available in Armenian and Bulgarian
The short briefing paper on Open Access prepared by Key Perspectives is a useful resource to understand what Open Access is and what it is not. eIFL has encouraged the translation of this work in the local languages within its network. The latest contributions have been kindly made by the Armenian and Bulgarian library consortia which add to the translations into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Portuguese, Slovenian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian that can be downloaded from http://www.keyperspectives.co.uk/openaccessarchive/briefingpapers.html

U.S. petition to support free and open access to research funded by the U.S. government

Dear Friends,
Momentum for public access to publicly funded research reached a height last month with the celebration of a National Day of Action by students across the U.S. and the presentation of over 21,000 individual and organizational signatures to the European Union's Commissioner for Science and Research.

To build on this momentum, several leading American organizations - representing libraries, health groups, students, and consumers - are jointly supporting a Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States.

This petition, which is open to supporters around the world, will demonstrate clearly to U.S. policymakers the depth and breadth of support for access to federally funded research in the United States. As U.S. lawmakers consider policies and legislation to advance public access, it is critical that supporters step forward and be counted.

Even if you signed the European petition, it's important that you sign the U.S. petition as well. Here's why:

* The European Commission petition was written explicitly to support Recommendation A1 of the EC's Study on the Economic and Technical Evolution of the Scientific Publication Markets of Europe.

* The U.S. petition is written to support public access to research funded by the U.S. government as well as the reintroduction and passage of the Federal Research Public Access Act.

* The U.S. petition collects state-specific information, which is essential to making the case for public access to individual lawmakers.

The Petition for Public Access to Publicly Funded Research in the United States is open to individuals and organizations of all types. If you are a researcher whose work is funded by the federal government, your signature is especially important since it shows that you want your work to be shared and used.

Please distribute this message and invite your members, friends, and colleagues to sign the petition immediately in order that as much progress as possible may be made in the 110th Congress.

Sincerely,
Heather Joseph
Executive Director, SPARC