Springer grants Haitian students and researchers free access to online platform

As Haiti continues to rebuild in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, Springer Science+Business Media is granting 15,000 students and researchers in the devastated country access to its online platform SpringerLink. Springer provides them with scientific content from approximately 2,000 research-level scientific journals including French-language editions and the state-of-the-art book series Lecture Notes in Computer Science and Lecture Notes in Mathematics. Access to journal articles and eBook content ranges from the current year back to 1997.

The digital library project in Haiti is being set up by Bibliothèques sans Frontières (BSF) in partnership with the State University of Haiti. In total, 23 international publishing partners support this initiative to provide immediate and easy access to electronic information resources.

The creation of this innovative library project aims to provide an efficient response to the destruction of 9 of Haiti’s 11 state university libraries. Students and researchers will have access to a vast range of content covering the latest research findings in science, technology, medicine, information technology, humanities, and behavioral and social sciences.

Access to Springer content is temporarily free of charge as ‘help for self-help’ to all users of the State University of Haiti for an initial period from 2011 to 2013. Thereafter, Springer will undertake a thorough review of the usage and impact this access has had for all the users in Haiti.

“The establishment of this academic structure aims to provide a quick and meaningful response to the lack of documentary infrastructures, in the aftermath of the disaster of January 12, 2010. But Bibliothèques Sans Frontières wants to deepen its collaboration with UEH: the ground for an international reference central academic library has already been prepared. We wish that, starting from 2012, a remote book loan service would be available to all the students of the UEH,” said Patrick Weil, President of Bibliothèques Sans Frontières.

“Bibliothèques sans Frontières should be highly commended for establishing this ‘pantheon’ of science in Haiti, which will be of insurmountable value to all students, teachers, doctors, researchers and other academics in the whole country. We wish Haiti every future success in the rebuilding of their country,” said Alan Harris, Licensing Manager Developing Country Initiatives at Springer.