Open Access: Removing barriers to knowledge sharing.

www.eifl.net

OUTLINE

• Introducing EIFL programmes & services

• Definition of Open Access (OA), OA journals, OA repositories in Africa, the benefits of repositories

• Libraries advocating OA in Africa, current projects and some results

• Examples: MZ, UNESCO/ASSAF/EIFL

EIFL

EIFL is an international non-profit-making network enabling access to knowledge for training, learning, research and sustainable community development in more than 45 transition and developing countries in Africa, Asia & Europe.

EIFL network in Africa: national library consortia in Botswana, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia & Zimbabwe.

Core Initiatives

• Access to Knowledge (A2K) for Education: training, Learning and Research

– ensuring well-resourced libraries, modern ICT infrastructure and skilled staff providing essential support to students and scholars.

•  Access to Knowledge (A2K) for Sustainable Community Development

– transforming lives through innovative services in public libraries

EIFL Programmes

• EIFL-Licensing

• EIFL-OA: open access

• EIFL-IP: copyright and libraries

• EIFL-FOSS: free and open source software

• EIFL-PLIP: Public Library Innovation Programme (eg in Botswana)

Expanding access to commercial e-resources

EIFL-Licensing

EIFL-Licensingin action…

• Negotiate affordable and fair licensing agreements

• Build local capacity in licensing and management of e-resources

• Work to promote awareness of e-resources, and to encourage subscriptions and usage

• Develop effective tools to support advocacy

EIFL-Licensingin action… (2)

$140 million saved by partners in 2009;

62 commercial e-resources from 19

vendors (including over 30,000 ejournals);

30% increase in full text articles downloaded;

98% is the average discount on list price.

Removing barriers to knowledge sharing

EIFL-OA: open access

EIFL-OAin action…

• Build capacity to launch OA repositories & to ensure their long-term sustainability

• Advocate nationally and internationally for the adoption of OA policies and mandates

• Provide guidance, expertise & support material during implementation of OA projects (policies, journals, repositories, books, data, OERs)

• Empower library professionals, scholars, educators and students to be OA advocates

EIFL-OAin action… (2)

• 390+ OA repositories & 2,500+ OA journals in EIFL partner countries

• OA policies have been adopted by 24 institutions in the EIFL network

• 43 awareness raising, advocacy and capacity building events and workshops in 2008-2011 in 28 countries with participants from over 50 countries

Promoting fair and balanced copyright laws

EIFL-IP: copyright and libraries

EIFL-IPin action…

• Play a leadership role in promoting national and international copyright law reform

• Build capacity through training in advocacy and copyright issues

• Provide valuable resources and expertise

• Empower library professionals to be advocates and international proponents of fair access for all

EIFL-IPin action… (2)

EIFL Handbook on Copyright and Related Issues

Copyright for Librarians: an Online Open Curriculum on Copyright Law with Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society

eIFL-IP Draft Law on Copyright Including Model Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Consumers

Statement of Principles on Copyright Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries

Improving ICT infrastructure in libraries

EIFL-FOSS: free and open source software

EIFL-FOSSin action…

• Raise awareness and understanding of FOSS use in libraries

• Encourage knowledge sharing through best-practice case studies

Disability Tools (Zimbabwe)

Guided Search (Zimbabwe)

EIFL-FOSSin action… (2)

• Build a network of FOSS champions in EIFL partner countries

• Provide training and guidance:

– ILS Pilots of Evergreen and Koha: full implementation in Zimbabwe &

Malawi, imminent roll-out in Mali

– The African Digital Library Support Network (ADLSN): Kenya, Lesotho,

Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe

– Monthly ‘themed weeks’

Improving lives and livelihood through innovative public library services

EIFL-PLIP: Public Library Innovation Programme

EIFL-PLIPin action…

• Bright ideas for using technology to improve lives

• Providing resources to support innovative ideas

• Promoting ideas that work

• Sharing learning and knowledge

EIFL-PLIPin action…(2)

Grant Programme

Call for Concept Papers 30th April 2011

Deadline 30th June 2011

Grants Awarded 1st October 2011Only public library services in the following areas will be supported:

• Services for children and youth at risk

• Services for farming and farmers

• Provision of health information

• Improving people’s employment prospects.

Open access (OA)

What is OA

It is free, immediate, online access to the results of research, coupled with the right to use those results in new and innovative ways

Why OA?

“Restrictive access policies drastically reduce readership of electronic research journal articles. OA provides an environment within which literature and scholarly research articles are made freely accessible online without license restrictions and without charging users subscription or access fees…

Why OA? (2)

“OA is a vital means of dissemination of information which is crucial for national development and in achieving MDGs, given the crucial role that information plays in achieving social, economic, cultural and political development.”

Professor Frank Youngman, DVC, University of Botswana

Why OA? (3)

OA for researchers: increased their visibility, increase on usage and impact on their work;

OA for research institutions: publicizes institutional research strengths, provides maximum return on investment; complete record of the research output in easily accessible form, new tools to manage institutional impact;

Why OA? (4)

OA for publishers: increased readership and citations, visibility and impact, the best possible dissemination service for research;

OA for libraries: partnerships with scientists and research managers to set up OA repositories, to curate research data and to develop OA policies, with scholarly publishers – to publish OA journals and books, and with educators – to produce Open Ed. Resources

OA journals in Africa

149 OA journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ, http://www.doaj.org/): Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Kenya, Morocco, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Mauritius, Libya, Madagascar and Senegal

51143 full text articles in African Journals OnLine (AJOL, http://www.ajol.info/)

OA repositories

Visibility, access, and preservation were the most important motivations to establish repositories, as cited by the participating institutions

Other motivations included the need to evaluate researchers and departments, and as a response to requests from faculty.

(A survey “Open Repository Development in Developing and Transition

countries” conducted by EIFL and the University of Kansas Libraries)

OA repositories (2)

Increase impact and usage of institutional research, providing new contacts and research partnerships for authors.

Provide usage statistics showing global interest and value of institutional research.

FOSS to set up, free technical support. Low installation and maintenance costs, quick to set up and gain benefits. Institutions can give mandate for OA - speeding up development

Role of the libraries: Advocacy EIFL

has provided financial support to five projects in Africa: at national and institutional levels, open access advocacy campaigns to reach out to research communities in Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Sudan and Zimbabwe

The Role of libraries: Advocacy in Botswana Advocacy for Open Access to

Researchers/Deans/Graduate Students/Editors/Policy Makers/Educators/Library Professionals a project of Botswana Library Consortium and University of Botswana

 

The Role of libraries: Advocacy in Ghana Open Access Institutional Repositories

Advocacy Campaign a project of the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana c/o Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partnership with Association of African Universities  

The Role of libraries: Advocacy in Malawi Awareness Campaign for Kamuzu

College of Nursing Library / University of Malawi Research Repository, a project of Kamuzu College of Nursing Library / University of Malawi in partnership with the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST)

The Role of libraries: Advocacy in Sudan Open Access awareness-raising

campaign among researchers at the Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum (UofK) implemented by the Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum Library with the partner: GrandIR, CB, a Carlos III University Madrid. See the project blog http://uofkoascir.blogspot.com

The Role of libraries: Advocacy in ZimbabweUniversity of Zimbabwe:

In 2011 Open Access Advocacy Campaign was implemented by the University of Zimbabwe Library

The Role of libraries: Advocacy resultsOpen access policies (mandates) ensure

that research funded by institutions is made freely available.

Such policies have been adopted by Strathmore University in Kenya, Covenant University in Nigeria, University of Pretoria and University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

The Role of libraries: Advocacy results (2)The Southern African Regional

Universities' Association (SARUA), representing 64 universities in sub-Saharan Africa, released a research report on Opening Access to Knowledge in Southern Africa, which recommended open access as a potential strategy for the region.

The Role of libraries: Advocacy results (3)The Academy of Science of South Africa

(ASSAf) implements recommendations from the Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa supporting the SciELO South Africa platform funded by the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa.

The Role of libraries: Advocacy results (4)The Department of Higher Education and

Training of South Africa has approved and mandated the implementation of ASSAf’s Scholarly Book Study.

A key recommendation is the maximisation of open access in order to widen access and encourage usage and citation.

The Role of libraries: Advocacy results (5)An open access project with the Ministry

of public health in Cameroon: collected 845 theses from Universities and other research institutes in Cameroon on the subject of reproductive health, will be available in open access soon.

Why Open Access?

“Access to relevant and timely information is critical to support the University’s mission of teaching, learning, research and the managerial functions of the University. Access to information is also an essential condition for the economic and social development of the country. Open access will enhance access to local content and this goal can only be achieved through collaborative efforts.” Professor Kamau

Ngamau, Dean Faculty of Agriculture, JKUAT

Why Open Access? (2)“One of the key pillars of the University of Botswana

new strategic plan “Strategy for excellence” is “Research Intensification”. OA will help the University of Botswana, Government, and research institutions to achieve this pillar by ensuring online accessibility to public funded research output that can be freely shared by everyone, enhance research quality, and improve visibility of the institution and the nation globally. ” Prof. Frank

Youngman, DVC, University of Botswana

Is OA on the agenda at the African Union?

Is the issue of Open Access to information through libraries part of business for the African Union (AU) when it comes to assessing countries’ performance under the African Peer Review Mechanisms (APRM)?

See a paper by MM Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa, National University of

Lesotho, EIFL country coordinator in Lesotho and EIFL Advisory

Board member, in the paper presented at the 76th IFLA

Conference, 10-15 August 2010, Gothenburg, Sweden.

OA in the European Union

Since August 2008 the European Commission (EC) is conducting a pilot initiative on OA to peer reviewed research articles in its Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7).

The EC requires grant recipients in seven areas to "deposit peer reviewed research articles or final manuscripts resulting from their FP7 projects into an online repository and make their best efforts to ensure OA to these articles".

OA in the European Union (2)

The seven areas are: Energy, Environment (including

Climate Change), Health, Information and

Communication Technologies (Cognitive Systems,

Interaction, Robotics), Research Infrastructures (e-

infrastructures), Science in society and Socio-economic

sciences and the Humanities.

Open access to these publications is to be ensured within

six months after publication in the first five areas listed;

and twelve months in the last two areas listed.

OA in the European Union (3)

The EC wants to ensure that the results of the research it funds are disseminated as widely and effectively as possible to guarantee maximum exploitation and impact in the world of researchers and beyond.

OA to research articles helps to increase the impact of the EU's investment in research and development and to avoid wasting time and valuable resources on duplicative research.

OA in the European Union (4)

With access to a wider selection of literature, researchers can build upon this knowledge to further their own work.

Small and medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs can also benefit from improved access to the latest research developments to speed up commercialisation and innovation.

UNESCO-ASSAf-EIFL workshop

UNESCO, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and EIFL organized a workshop on the benefits of open access for research dissemination, usage, visibility and impact (in Pretoria on 22 and 23 November 2010).

Representatives from ten African Universities, Councils for Sciences and Technology, Academies of Science attended the workshop.

UNESCO-ASSAf-EIFL workshop (2)

Discussions focused on critical aspects that policies should address, to make research materials available in open access.

Workshop participants highlighted priority areas for intervention in open access in Africa and the way forward in promoting better cooperation among institutions that are promoting access to scientific knowledge.

UNESCO-ASSAf-EIFL workshop (3)

Recommendations:

Capacity building: OA publishing and OA repositories, copyright management

Advocacy campaigns for regulatory policy frameworks – Require open access to publicly funded research – explore possibilities of OA mandates

UNESCO-ASSAf-EIFL workshop (4)

Strategy:

Launch OA repositories.

Publish OA journals.

Explore business case (models) for open scholarship environment.

Consider a patent policy that does not hinder the process of open innovations.

Thank you

www.eifl.net