Support to promote and provide Open Access to Information

[Dinah Koteikor Baidoo]

INASP/UNESCO in collaboration is doing well to support with funds to promote and provide Opens Access to Information. 

What must Librarians and Academic Library Administrators do to help achieve the cause championed by INASP/UNESCO?

Open Access provides free access to scholarly publications and publishing. For example Digitized Books, Journal Articles, Theses and Dissertations. Some of these have been priced higher by other Electronic Databases and access can only be made possible by the Institution's ability to purchase and continue to renew. 

Why don't we librarians create the awareness and encourage our users to access the Open Access Resources to obtain equally authentic and credible Journals Articles, e-books, Theses and Dissertations and also publish their research article free of charge if the aim is to be Professionally promoted in their fields but not for profit?

The Institutional Repository is one of the Open Access Resources that most Institution can and are using. 

The ball is in our court as Professional librarians since INASP/UNESCO has championed the cause to provide financial support.