STM publisher Springer Science+Business Media, Germany, in cooperation with subscription services provider Swets, Netherlands, has signed an agreement with the University of the Free State in South Africa to provide all of its libraries with the Springer eBook Collection 2005 - 2008. With immediate effect, 10,781 Springer eBooks will be available to more than 30,000 students and faculty at the university. The Springer eBook Collection consists of textbooks, monographs, reference works, handbooks, book series and encyclopaedias.
All students and researchers at the university will have electronic access and full archival rights to the Springer eBooks available on Springer's online platform, SpringerLink. This platform also includes millions of articles from Springer's peer-reviewed journals and reference works.
The University of the Free State is one of the oldest universities in South Africa. The university is an important research center, with six faculties offering a full range of under- and postgraduate programmes to more than 30,000 students.