The following is a post published on the EIFL website @ http://www.eifl.net/news/republic-maldives-joins-eifl-partner-country – 16 May 2011

We would like to welcome the Republic of the Maldives as our newest EIFL Partner Country!

Fathmath Shiham, Chief Librarian at the National Library of the Maldives, in consultation with the library community, has initiated our new partnership and will be the EIFL country coordinator

Maldives on the world map

Currently there is no formal library consortium but Fathmath and the EIFL team have started to take the first steps on the Consortium Management roadmap. There are academic, government, school, special, private, and public libraries that have expressed interest in being included in the consortium.

You can learn more about Maldives library activities from their two blogs:

http://kuthubuhana.blogspot.com (National Library)

https://infomalias.wordpress.com (Maldives Library Association)

The Maldives overview

Geography is among the challenges that they face because the population is dispersed over 200 islands and there is a lack of natural resource.  The Maldives is classified by the IMF as an emerging and developing economy. Their GDP per capita is US$ 4,478 (2010 estimate), the service section accounts for over 70% of the GDP.