Abstract - Ellen Tise
Ellen Tise
IFLA"Open access: an imperative for growth and development"
Barriers to access to information do not augur well for bridging the chasm between developed and developing nations, neither will it alter the current patterns of global development. However, the advent of the internet removes all justification for the perpetuation of barriers to access to knowledge. Open access provides a window of opportunity to deliver free access to millions of research articles for all with Internet access. It is a given that strengthening research capacities is one of the most effective and sustainable ways of advancing growth and development emphasizing the need to share scholarly information. The sharing of scholarly information will go a long way to resolving the deep knowledge gap between the developed and developing nations as there would be the creation of a global knowledge base that would include essential research emanating from both research communities in developing countries as well as from “international” research. This global knowledge base delivers platforms to address the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The MDG cannot be achieved without free international access to the world’s publicly funded research findings or without collaborative initiatives. Open access is the most fundamental strategy for the exchange of scholarly information bringing equality to access to knowledge. Such equality can only but strengthen democracies and significantly contribute to the realignment of information-oriented democracies and their transformation towards growth and development.
