The work of eIFL with digital libraries in Africa

The paper focuses on the contribution eIFL.net (Network electronic Information for Libraries) makes to enable access to knowledge for education, learning and research, and for sustainable livelihood. It outlines eIFL.net´s unique approach to partner with library consortia across Africa and describes the impact of its core initiatives in African countries, namely its negotiations and access to knowledge programme as a practical solution to enable research and academia to connect with up-to-date quality scholarly information; its Open Access and IPR programme activities addressing technical, organisational and legal questions of building local content repositories; its FOSS program including building the local digital library and most recently its public library innovation program with a strong eInclusion component. eIFLnet´s Open Access program has a strong relationship with the DRIVER community dealing with EU research into digital repositories eIFL.net is also a partner in a new FP7 project OpenAIRE.