Algerian librarians to form a consortium

Through the EC-Tempus funded project (ISTeMAG) whose goal is to increase access to scientific and technical information in higher education in the Maghreb, EIFL recently conducted training with librarians from across Algeria.

This exciting project recognizes the central role that university libraries, as providers of scientific and technical information, play in the dissemination of scientific research results to faculty, researchers, and students.

The workshop objective was to provide training in the areas of consortium management (led by Monika Elbert, EIFL consortium management programme manager) and negotiating and licensing e-resources (led by Emilija Banionyte, Director of the Library of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and President of Lithuanian Research Library Consortium LMBA).

The consortium model was agreed upon as the most effective way to provide continued access to e-resources and services for students and faculty.  The workshop was in fact very timely as Algerian librarians are just at the point where they are beginning to collaborate more formally, one participant noted, the workshop was, "...très utile dans la mesure où nous sommes à la veille d'en installer un à travers 3 consortium régionaux" [very useful as we are just about to set up a consortium through three regions]

The participants were also given an in-depth look at the entire licensing cycle; they particularly appreciated hearing lessons learned from Emilija, President of the Lithuanian consortium (which recently celebrated 10 years). As one participant said, he learned from " ...les idées données par les formateurs de différentes régions du monde ainsi que l'expérience et les methods" [the ideas shared by the trainers from different regions of the world in addition to their experiences and the methods]

The training took place 21 November – 23 November at the CERIST (Centre de Recherche en Information Scientifique et Technique) facilities in Algiers.

In attendance were librarians from all the Algerian Tempus partners (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique; Université Abou Bekr Belkaid de Tlemcen; Université M’Hamed Bougara de Boumerdès; Centre de Recherche en Information Scientifique et Technique – CERIST; Université Hadj Lakhdar de Batna) and also from the Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene; Université de Tiaret; Oum el Bouaghi; and Université d’Oran.

The event was hosted by CERIST and organzied and managed by Farida Zerari, Point de contact TEMPUS IV ISTemag. Jacques Hellemans, Librarian and Economist from the Université Libre de Bruxelles –ULB (Belgium), facilitated the event. 

Read the grant announcement.

IsteMag project website

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