History
EIFL began as eIFL.net in 1999 as an initiative of the Open Society Institute (OSI), a private grant-making foundation that is part of the Soros Foundation network. Recognising the key role that libraries play in the exchange of ideas, knowledge and information and the development of open societies, OSI invested significantly in library development and modernisation especially in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. With traditionally sophisticated educational systems, these countries represented emerging markets for international providers of scholarly and academic information. However, the barriers to access were formidable with little money to pay for expensive electronic resources, poor technological infrastructures, lack of capacity and relatively little awareness of electronic alternatives to print subscriptions. This deprived many libraries of the wealth of international academic journals and databases and the opportunities of digital technologies.
Committed to supporting education and research in transition countries, OSI through EIFL aimed to assist libraries and their users in achieving affordable access to electronic scholarly resources. EIFL negotiates licences with publishers for electronic resources on behalf of its members. As access to Internet-based digital material can be expanded at marginal cost to the provider, the idea is to leverage the purchasing power of individually "poor" customers and negotiate a multi-country consortial deal with information providers. EIFL acts as an agent for the national library consortia, who manages promotion and use of the electronic resources locally. Libraries and their users have access to thousands of full-text academic and scholarly journals from the arts to zoology through EIFL licences.
In 2002, EIFL became an independent foundation with diversified funding registered in the Netherlands with its operational seat in Rome, Italy. EIFL is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC).
Over the last ten years, EIFL has been effective in helping libraries to overcome the challenges they face.
Read more about this topic: Electronic Information For Libraries
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