Introduction

The first Open Access institutional repository in the country – Biblioteca Digital da Universidade Jean Piaget de Cabo Verde – has been registered in OpenDOAR (an authoritative directory of academic Open Access repositories) in February 2009. In 2013, it included 231 research outputs from 191 authors: research articles, conference papers, theses and other types of gray literature, books and learning objects. The repository interface is in Portuguese.

Enabling Environment

In 1996 Cape Verde was the 29th African nation that got connected to the internet and currently, 32% of the Cape Verdean population has Internet access. This is more than twice to that of the average internet penetration rate in Africa (15.6%) and very close to the word average (34.3%).

The specific objective of using ICT in education was reinforced by the Strategic Education Plan for 2003-2013, which recommended the use of ICT in education.

Free and open source software (DSpace) was used to build a digital library and a community of volunteers helped to populate the repository that helped to diffuse costs and built a sense of communal ownership of the project.

The greatest challenge faced is the copyright issue. Securing permission from the authors and the publishers takes a lot of time.

Internet usage is not equally spread all over the country and some regions still suffer from digital divide.

Key Organizations

University Jean Piaget of Cape Verde is the first University in the country established in May 2001. It is an integral part of Jean Piaget Institute, a Portuguese non profit oriented cooperative, which has 10 University campuses in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Portugal, as well as a publisher (Editora Piaget ) and several kindergartens. Contact details: Universidade Jean Piaget de Cabo Verde, Caixa Postal 775, Praia, Cabo Verde, Tel. +238 2609000, Fax. +238 260 9020

Events and Programs

The 13th congress of the Association of Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA-13) was held in Cape Verde on October 15-19, 2012. The theme will be: Enhancing access to health information in Africa: research, collaboration and innovation. Sub themes:

• Global partnerships and access to health information in Africa.
• Empowering end user access and use of health information.
• The role of ICT in enhancing access to health information in Africa.
• Promoting research among healthcare providers through access to health information.
• Strengthening library and information networks at country level.

Open Access to research information, in particular collecting and disseminating health research outcomes at institutions via Open Access repositories, was discussed at the 12th congress of the Association of Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) that took place in October 2010 in Ouagadougou, and it is expected that there will be new Open Access developments in the country and in the region.