The next meeting of the Community of Practice (CoP) for no-fee OA publishing in Africa, that now includes 359 members, will take place on 16 July 2025 at 10:00 UTC. 

Milica Ševkušić, EIFL Open Access Programme Project Coordinator, will be one of the presenters at the webinar “Connect with the European Diamond OA Community: The Forum & Registry of the European Diamond Capacity Hub”, organized by the Horizon Europe funded projects DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA. 

EIFL will co-facilitate a regional webinar for editors and publishers of scholarly open access journals in six countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. The webinar is organized as part of the Horizon Europe funded project DIAMAS, in which EIFL is a partner. 

The EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) team has released a new ‘Small Bites’ training video for public librarians and public library trainers, focused on the effective use of icebreakers and energizers in library training sessions.

EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme Manager, Ramune Petuchovaite, will attend the Internet Governance Forum 2025 (IGF2025), which brings together stakeholders from government, industry and civil society from across the world to discuss public policy issues related to internet governance. 

EIFL staff member, Jevgenija Sevcova, will train teachers in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the National University of Laos in the use of the E-library, created with support from EIFL, and Zotero free and open source reference management software for managing bibliographic data and related research materials.

EIFL staff member, Jevgenija Sevcova, will train teachers in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the National University of Laos in the use of the E-library, created with support from EIFL, and Zotero free and open source reference management software for managing bibliographic data and related research materials.

The Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) has adopted and launched an open science policy following an extensive and participatory stakeholder engagement process. 

EIFL’s agreement with Edward Elgar, which expires at the end of 2025, has been renewed for another three years, until December 2028.  Edward Elgar Publishing is one of the leading independent academic book publishers in law, business and the social sciences. Edward Elgar also publishes a growing list of peer-reviewed journals.

The renewed agreement provides free access in 30 countries to 19 journals and the Edward Elgar Development Studies & Environment e-book collections of 1,592 titles. The number of e-book titles in the collections has doubled since the last agreement. 

A range of new resources and services has been added to the European Diamond Capacity Hub (EDCH) that was  launched in 2025 for Diamond open access (OA) publishers and service, tool and technology providers. The EDCH was developed by the DIAMAS and CRAFT-OA projects with the aim of advancing Diamond open access publishing across Europe. EIFL is a partner in the DIAMAS project. 

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2024 Annual Report, in which we share our achievements and tell the stories of people who have benefited from our work.

A special feature in this report highlights the work of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) in Uganda, that has led to resourcing of public and community libraries across the country with ICT. Librarians are using the equipment in new community information services and training programmes that are helping to change the lives of many thousands of people.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2024 Annual Report, in which we share our achievements and tell the stories of people who have benefited from our work.

A special feature in this report highlights the work of the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) in Uganda, that has led to resourcing of public and community libraries across the country with ICT. Librarians are using the equipment in new community information services and training programmes that are helping to change the lives of many thousands of people.

EIFL staff member, Jevgenija Sevcova, will train students in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the National University of Laos in the use of the E-library.

EIFL staff member, Jevgenija Sevcova, will train students in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the National University of Laos in the use of the E-library.

EIFL's Milica Ševkušić will hold a full-day training session titled How to improve the visibility of individual researchers and their research outputs on 5 June 2025. The training will address the challenges of ensuring proper attribution and discoverability of research in the digital age and explain to participants how to navigate open science practices towards enhancing the visibility and impact of their research.

Jevgenija Sevcova, EIFL staff member, will give a presentation about EIFL and EIFL’s activities at this meeting of the Maldives Library Consortium. The main topics of the meeting will be the benefits of the library consortium and e-resources that are available through EIFL for institutions in the Maldives.

How do you envision a project and design library buildings and facilities that will not be delivered for several years? The past 18 months has shone a new light on the need for resilient and responsive buildings. What library services and programmes will be provided in the future? How are innovative approaches to the delivery of library services imagined, implemented and accommodated in new facilities? What are the facilities that will fit future services not yet in existence? What are the challenges and debates within the design team and stakeholders as the planning and preparation are undertaken? What works best and what processes should be used? What differences, if any, are there in building a new facility or re-using and adapting an old site? On October 5th join Traci Lesneski, Philip Kent and thought leaders from Australia, Canada and The Netherlands to consider these important issues.

Register today!

The following statement was issued by Secretary General Gerald Leitner, on behalf of IFLA on 25 August 2021.

IFLA has followed closely recent legislative developments in Hungary, and in particular the provisions passed in June which prohibit the portrayal of homosexuality or gender reassignment in children’s books.

As has been noted by commentators, the breadth of the law creates the possibility that libraries, in providing access to books for young users, are covered by these provisions. As such, this raises significant questions about the ability and responsibility of libraries to fulfil their mission to provide access to information for all.

IFLA stands by its Statement on Intellectual Freedom (1999), which underlines that library collections shall reflect the plurality and diversity of society, and that selection and availability of materials should be governed by professional considerations and not by political, moral and religious views. 

In parallel, IFLA also underlines the message of the IFLA-UNESCO Public Library Manifesto (1994), which stresses the need to provide information to all, reflecting their needs, and evolutions in society. It also emphasises that ‘collections and services should not be subject to any form of ideological, political or religious censorship, nor commercial pressures’.

The IFLA-UNESCO School Library Manifesto underlines these same points, in connection with the development of children.

In the light of this, IFLA stresses that libraries should not face rules that prevent or hinder them from giving access to works which reflect the experience of any part of the communities they serve – including LGBTQ+ users and their families – or pressure to do so. This includes measures that make it harder for readers – in particular young readers – to find works, or the use of marks or other signs that stigmatise their use of such works.

Such steps limit the ability of library and information professionals to make their own judgements, based on professionalism and an understanding of the needs of users, in order to support the development of all members of their communities.

In parallel, IFLA also voices its support for publishers, authors and booksellers who have fallen foul of these new provisions, and calls for an end to similar restrictions elsewhere.

Gerald Leitner
​IFLA Secretary General 25 August 2021

Download the statement from our publications page.

Dear Friends,    

We are pleased to share with you the August 2021 issue of the IFLA Asia & Oceania Regional Newsletter.  

On behalf of my team, I would like to express our deepest appreciation to all our article contributors and supporters.  

Click on the PDF below to access the amazing articles we have curated for you this time!  

Happy reading and stay safe!  

Best regards,

Ms Lin Li SOH

Manager | IFLA Regional Office 
Asia & Oceania
c/o National Library Board, Singapore

For the next edition of the international Library Publishing Directory, please go to https://librarypublishing.org/lpdq-2022/ before 13 September 2021.  Your contribution will be accessible through the global library publishing map found at https://lib-pub.org/