Open archives for Library and Information Science: an international experience = Ogólnodostępne archiwa a informacja naukowa i biblioteczna – doświadczenia globalne

Library and information domain being highly integrated with computing science and technology, bibliometric and citational analysis, the team that launched this project felt that LIS could set an interesting reference case to other communities in providing a state-of-the-art model for the OA movement and for digital libraries, and most particularly to the open archive model, within which E-LIS is a disciplinary repository. Furthermore the evolving academic discourse surrounding the concept of Open Access (OA) provided the underlying motivation for the establishment of E-LIS Eprints for Library and Information Science in compliance with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) protocol. Authors who contribute to an e-print archive are participating in a global effort by universities, researchers, libraries, publishers, editors, and readers, to redefine the mechanisms of scholarly communication. E-LIS makes LIS research more visible and accessible, which in turn will increase its status and public value. The trend towards digital libraries and self-archiving is one of the more recent developments in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS). The development of an international LIS network is being stimulated by the extension of the OA concept to LIS works and facilitated by the dissemination of material within the LIS community. These are some of the reasons for the success of E-LIS as an organizational model developed within an OAI compliance framework and for this respect E-LIS can be regarded as a tool for disseminating the OA philosophy. Built in 2003, E-LIS is an international open access archive related to librarianship, information science and technology, and related disciplines. Being the first international e-server in this area, E-LIS is a part of the RCLIS (Research in Computing, Library and Information Science) project and is organized, managed and maintained by an international team of librarians working on a voluntary basis. All editors share a common vision and mission, while contributing to E-LIS with their own experience and competence. E-LIS deals with each country specific issues to decide the best solution for technical and non-technical barriers so that international visibility can be promoted whilst national interests are served. International co-operation can facilitate debate on current issues on many levels and provides new professional experiences and expertise to editors, on a personal level. To date E-LIS is the largest repository in library and information science and after a few years contains almost 7000 papers from 82 countries. Poland, being a very active country in the Europe continent, is also contributing, within this framework, with national papers. This presentation describes the main technical and organizational characteristics of the archive, its configuration and customization, and states its policies, aims and mission. Main focus, however, is placed on E-LIS organizational model and on strategic issues related to OA. It also reasons on how E-LIS efforts are contributing to outline some of the challenges and opportunities resulting from a global vision of the Library and Information Science domain, giving E-LIS team the necessary motivation to engage in such a venture and to further develop international research activities