Any person has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates. This right includes the freedom of looking for, receiving and spreading information and ideas by any means, independent from the state borders. The “access to information (content) and open licenses” was discussed at a public lesson organized on the occasion of the Science Days at the National Library on November 6, IPN reports.
Nelly Țurcan, doctor habilitate and university professor, said the access to information is a very important aspect for different categories of users. “The access to information is the capacity of a person to look for, receive and transmit information efficiently. This, in the opinion of specialists, sometimes includes a number of components, such as scientific knowledge, indigenous knowledge, traditional knowledge, freedom of information, creation of resources of open knowledge, including open Internet, open standards, open access to information, availability of data,” she stated.
The closed access to information owing to passwords or addresses that are not permanent, lack of content in a digital format are among the problems faced by the users. “Both in these cases and in many other cases, we must try possibilities and create mechanisms that would extend the access of different categories of public, users, to information and content created by other researchers, teachers or ordinary people, who now intensely create content and place it in different digital environments,” said Nelly Țurcan.
Open access literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Victoria Vasilică, head of the Studies and Research Section of the National Library, said the event is organized by the National Library within the third edition of the Science Days that are held during November 5-11. “The theme of this public lesson is not only topical, but is also absolutely necessary in this period of pandemic both for librarians and for any creator of scientific content,” stated Victoria Vasilică.
The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova provides that the public right of access to information cannot be restricted, while the public authorities should appropriately inform the citizens.
