ANACOM - Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (National Communications Authority); UMIC - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (Knowledge Society Agency); The Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education; FCCN - Fundação para a Computação Científica Nacional (Foundation for National Scientific Computing) and the University of Cape Verde have signed a protocol on the Online Knowledge Library (b-on).
This protocol provides for free electronic access by teachers, researchers and students of the University of Cape Verde to the full texts of scientific publications from a range of international publishers selected by the University of Cape Verde (Cambridge Press, Oxford Press, Sage, Taylor & Francis), with access provided through Portugal's Online Knowledge Library (b-on).
b-on has been functioning in Portugal since 2004 under the responsibility of UMIC and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, with technical and operational management provided by FCCN. It is used intensively on a daily basis by the Portuguese scientific and academic community.
Subscriptions to the content which can be accessed through b-on are contracted directly from various international publishers by FCCN which, with respect to the cooperation formalised by this Protocol, has negotiated an agreement with the publishers indicated by the University of Cape Verde to extend the availability of their contents to the University with favourable financial conditions.
As part of the cooperation programme and in accordance with this Protocol, ANACOM is subsidising the increases in publisher subscription costs in 2009, arising as a result of the expanded availability of content to the University of Cape Verde.
With this protocol, electronic access to a large number of international sources of scientific knowledge has been extended to the University of Cape Verde, significantly improving the working conditions of this University's academic and scientific community, more easily and with lower costs than if the same content were provided by traditional means on paper.
The now formalised cooperation between Portuguese institutions and the University of Cape Verde is a concrete example and demonstration of the willingness to cooperate in the important area of knowledge, which currently plays a central role in economic and social development. It is also a sign of the overall commitment to raising the levels of citizen qualification.
