[Oa-italia] "UNESCO publishes a book on Open Access to Knowledge in South Asia"

[Antonella De Robbio]

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 Contacts
  Anup Kumar Das, UNESCO Office in New Delhi <d.anup-kumar a unesco.org>
  Jocelyne
 Josiah, UNESCO Office in New Delhi <j.josiah a unesco.org>

 Source
  UNESCO

 Field Office
  UNESCO Office in New
 Delhi<http://www.unesco-ci.org/newsletter/lt/t_go.php?i=1273&e=MTMxODcx&l=-http--portal.unesco.org/geography/en/ev.php-URL_ID--E-5972--A-URL_DO--E-DO_TOPIC--A-URL_SECTION--E-201.html>

 Related links
  Open Access to Knowledge and Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital
 Library Initiatives – the South Asian
 Scenario<http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26393&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html>





 UNESCO publishes a book on Open Access to Knowledge in South Asia
   Publication cover
  (c) UNESCO

 07-04-2008 (New Delhi)

 *UNESCO Office in New Delhi has released Open Access to Knowledge and
 Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital Library Initiatives – the
 South Asian Scenario. This book illustrates South Asian initiatives on open
 access to information and knowledge. It has its genesis in the
 recommendations and proceedings of UNESCO-supported international
 conferences and workshops.*

 Universal access to information and knowledge is a key principle in UNESCO's
 overall mandate to promote the free flow of information by word and by image
 and thus to place information and knowledge at the doorsteps of communities.


 In the information society, free flow of information is a fundamental
 principle for bridging the knowledge gaps between privileged and
 under-privileged communities. Open access to information and knowledge is an
 innovative mode of scholarly communication within the digital environment,
 which is gaining momentum in developed countries that already have necessary
 information infrastructure.

 The emerging economies amongst the developing countries are not far behind
 in building up necessary information infrastructure, essential for
 sustainable economic development. These emerging countries, however, have
 limitations in terms of bridging the digital divide within their societies,
 due to the co-existence of marginalized and privileged communities. The
 South Asia sub-region is now in the forefront of the open access movement
 within developing countries, with India being the most prominent partner in
 terms of its successful open access and digital library initiatives.

 The book describes successful digital library and open access initiatives in
 the South Asia sub-region that are available in the forms of open
 courseware, open access journals, metadata harvesting services,
 national-level open access repositories and institutional repositories. It
 may be considered an authoritative source-book on open access development in
 this sub-region.

 The publication is available online in PDF format: *click
 here*<http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26393&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html>
 .