We are delighted to name four winners of the 19th EIFL Public Library Innovation Award, for Public libraries that include STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) activities in their services and programmes.

Congratulations to –

"What this programme has given us goes beyond fostering scientific thinking — it's taught us a new way of bonding with our child," said a parent whose child participates in the Shanghai Children’s Library ‘STEM Whiz Kids’ programme.

The Biblioteca de Empresas Públicas de Medellín (Biblioteca EPM) in Colombia goes beyond traditional library services by fostering spaces for art, culture, and above all, STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) with its standout robotics club made up of young people passionate about these topics. From this group, five members have been admitted to university engineering programmes. 

Over 90% of children living in under-resourced areas of eThekwini Municipality in South Africa have expressed interest in taking up careers in science and technology after participating in Woodhurst Public Library’s STEM Makers digital skills programme.

Over the past two years (2023 - 2025) Woodhurst library has worked with partners and nine branch libraries in District 8 of the eThekwini municipal area (near the city of Durban) to organize bi-monthly coding and robotics workshops and fun school holiday Stem Makers programmes. In 2025 the programme reached 450 learners. 

The Nurture Lab at Rijeka City Library inspires creativity and innovation among young people by organizing workshops and learning activities in library spaces resourced with a wide range of digital equipment and other tools that can be used in projects that combine technology, science and art.

Join the next meeting of the Community of Practice (CoP) for no-fee OA publishing in Africa, that now includes over 380 members - 

Date and time: 21 January 2026 at 10:00 UTC/11:00 WAT/12:00 CAT/13:00 EAT (convert to your timezone).

We have renewed our agreement with the Institute of Physics (IOP) Publishing for three years, until 2028. For the first time, the EIFL-IOP agreement includes free or discounted Article Processing Charges (APCs) for publishing in open access in IOP hybrid journals in addition to free or discounted read access to the IOPscience Extra package.

EIFL has negotiated free access to the IOPscience Extra package for 19 EIFL partner countries, and discounted access for nine EIFL partner countries.

EIFL has renewed and expanded its agreement with World Scientific for one year, until the end of 2026. The renewed agreement provides waived or discounted Article Processing Charges (APCs) for authors to publish in 145 hybrid or gold (fully) open access journals in various fields.

Over the last three decades, World Scientific has established itself as the largest international scientific publisher in the Asia-Pacific region. 

EIFL has negotiated waived APCs for 26 EIFL partner countries, and discounted APCs for eight EIFL partner countries.

All the best for the holiday season and the New Year, with warm wishes from the EIFL Board and team. Thank you to everyone who has worked with us in 2025. We look forward to working with you again in 2026.
 

Public librarians who have completed the training-of-trainers programmes in Africa carried out by the EIFL Public Library Innovation Programme (EIFL-PLIP) team and partners are invited to attend this online knowledge-sharing event on the Library of the Future. The guest speaker is Dr Hanne Vogt, an international library coach, project developer and award-winning former director of Cologne City Library. 

The EIFL-Cambridge University Press (CUP) agreement has been renewed for a further year, until December 2026. The renewed agreement includes free and discounted access to journals and publishing in open access in CUP journals. 

Free and discounted read access to 423 CUP journal titles

13 EIFL partner countries are eligible for free access:

• Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Kosovo, Laos, Lesotho, Malawi, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, Senegal, Sudan, Ukraine

6  EIFL partner countries are eligible for discounted access:

Reports from projects aiming to strengthen the quality and sustainability of African no-fee open access (OA) publishing are starting to come in, and we take pleasure in sharing results from projects that have enhanced two journals in South Africa.

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is free and open-source software for managing the entire researcher-to-reader workflow for submission, peer review and production of scholarly journals. It is the most widely used scholarly publishing platform in EIFL partner countries and worldwide.

Teresa Hackett, Manager of the EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme, reports from Geneva where she joined advocates for copyright law reform promoting the adoption of modern copyright laws that maximize access to knowledge. She attended two events: the launch of the new Centre on Knowledge Governance and the 47th session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights.

A new player in Geneva - Centre on Knowledge Governance 

EIFL, AJOL (African Journals Online) and WACREN (the West and Central African Research and Education Network) take pleasure in announcing the award of 16 more grants that will strengthen the quality and sustainability of no-fee (Diamond) open access journals and journal hosting platforms across Africa. 

The grants were awarded to 16 projects aimed at strengthening over a hundred no-fee open access journals and platforms in nine countries (Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo and Tunisia).

Researchers are invited to join this webinar that explores the future of scholarly communication by bringing together perspectives from Africa, Europe and Latin America to examine how Diamond open access can contribute to a more equitable and community-driven scholarly publishing ecosystem. 

This EIFL webinar for journal editors, publishers, librarians and others involved in DOI registration will show how providing comprehensive metadata when registering DOIs for research output supports indexing, citation tracking and interoperability with scholarly databases. 

Iryna Kuchma, EIFL Open Access Programme Manager, will speak at the International Conference: The library shaping tomorrow, organized by EIFL’s partner, The State Scientific and Technical Library of Ukraine (SSTL), to celebrate its 90th anniversary. 

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana has initiated a project that aims to enhance the sustainability, quality and functionality of its official journal, the Journal of Science and Technology. 

A Diamond open access journal, the Journal of Science and Technology (JUST),  mainly publishes articles resulting from original research in different aspects of science (physical, biological and chemical), the humanities and technology. 

The Ghana Library Association has initiated a project aiming to transform the Ghana Library Journal into a more robust, visible, and sustainable Diamond open access journal serving the academic community in Ghana and beyond.

The Ghana Library Journal publishes research for librarians, library administrators, information scientists, academics, educators and students with an interest in Librarianship and Information Science.