EIFL has provided comments to the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) on the draft Intellectual Property Bill, 2020, which aims to consolidate existing laws relating to intellectual property.

This EIFL webinar will cover subscription cancellations and alternative access options. Our guest speakers Colleen Campbell, Partner Development at OA2020, and Britt-Marie Wideberg, Coordinator of Bibsam, the Consortium of University and Research Libraries of Sweden, will discuss why the libraries and consortia decided to cancel some of their journal subscriptions, how they secured stakeholder buy-in for the cancellation, how they planned for it, and how they communicated it to users - and what alternative access options are available to their users.
 

EIFL will host the webinar, on behalf of the OpenAIRE Policy and Legal Task Force. It will cover the mapping exercise of a national Plan S compliant OA Policy in Ireland and also discuss new developments in Plan S, offering practical advice to national stakeholders in complying with Plan S provisions.
We invite research funders, national contact points for Plan S, vice-rectors, research administrators and managers, librarians and others who are interested in this topic.  

In February 2020 five young public librarians from Africa travelled to Nashville in the USA to take part in an international learning, knowledge-sharing and networking experience organized by EIFL and partners. The five were participants in the EIFL Initiative for Young African Library Innovators (IYALI). After their journey, we asked them about the experience and how they might apply what they had learnt in their libraries back home.

In May 2020, member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) appointed Mr Daren Tang to WIPO’s top job in Geneva. As leader of WIPO, the global body that sets international law and policy on intellectual property issues, the new Director General takes charge of an organization whose direction on copyright determines how libraries do their work, especially in the digital environment.

“The library is closed to the public until further notice.” Messages like this have been posted on the doors and gates of public libraries across the world as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, and public librarians have joined the millions of people forced to stay at home by lockdown measures. 

The Research Data Alliance (RDA) COVID-19 Working Group has released draft guidelines and recommendations (rd-alliance.org/group/rda-covid19-rda-covid19-omics-rda-covid19-epidemiology-rda-covid19-clinical-rda-covid19-0) for sharing research data in ways that support scientific research and policy making during public health emergencies. 

On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day 2020, EIFL worked with leading global cultural heritage organizations in drafting an open letter calling on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to take urgent action to help save our cultural heritage.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are working with our partners globally to help ensure that education and research continue despite disruptions, and that the scientific and health sectors have access to the widest range of trusted resources to support their work while the crisis continues.

EIFL Guest Blogger, EIFL Open Access Programme Coordinator in Serbia, Milica Ševkušić, shares ideas for helping Serbian researchers obtain discounts and waivers and for raising researchers’ awareness about Article Processing Charges (APCs).

Researchers in EIFL partner countries can now publish their articles in open access with waived or discounted Article Processing Charges (APCs) in 780 journals as a result of agreements signed by EIFL with publishers.

In developing countries, budgets for research are low or non-existent. This makes it difficult for researchers to publish their articles in open access in journals that charge APCs. To support researchers from these countries, EIFL negotiates with publishers for free or discounted APCs. 

EIFL worked with partner organizations in drafting an open letter to the Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr Francis Gurry, calling on WIPO to ensure that intellectual property (IP) systems are a support, not a hindrance, in global efforts to tackle the coronavirus crisis, and its consequences. The letter was signed initially by more than 140 organizations and individuals in 33 countries. Update 16 April: the letter has been endorsed by over 500 organizations and individuals in more than 45 countries.

EIFL OA Programme Manager Iryna Kuchma will represent EIFL at the COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) General Assembly 2020, which takes the form of a virtual meeting. EIFL is one of the founding members of COAR, an international association that brings together individual repositories and repository networks in order to build capacity, align policies and practices, and that acts as a global voice for the repository community. 

In May 2019, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar adopted a new copyright law, repealing the previous law enacted over a century ago, in 1914. The new law introduces many important changes. For example, the term of protection is extended from life of the author plus 30 years to life plus 50 years and, for the first time, foreign works in Myanmar are copyright-protected.

We’re inviting librarians, publishers, researchers and students to join this EIFL webinar  about new developments in open book publishing. The guest speaker is Lucy Barnes, editor and outreach coordinator at Open Book Publishers (OBP).

On 24 February 2020, the Republic of Serbia became the 92nd country to join the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities, and the first country in the western Balkans.

The National Library of Serbia (NLS) has been at the forefront in providing library and information services to people in Serbia with print disabilities, and since 2013 has been a strong advocate for accession by Serbia to the Marrakesh Treaty. 

Representatives of EIFL partner consortia and EIFL staff will travel to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, for the 2020 EIFL General Assembly (GA). The GA is EIFL’s major annual knowledge-sharing and networking event for library professionals in developing and transition economy countries. 

This year’s GA is hosted by the Vilnius County Adomas Mickevičius Public Library. Established in 1950, the library is located in the heart of Vilnius, in a palace built in the 15th-16th centuries. It is named in honour of the Romantic poet Adomas Mickevičius. 

EIFL guest blogger Velenasi Mwale Munsanje, the immediate past president of the Library and Information Association of Zambia (LIAZ), looks back at a two-year partnership with EIFL to build capacity of public librarians in Zambia.