1Assistant Professor, DLISc., Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
*Correspondence to: Dr. Rupak Chakravarty, rupak@pu.ac.in
Online published on 16 May, 2017.
Neither can a thief steal it, nor can a powerful politician take it, Neither can it be divided amongst brothers, nor is too heavy to carry. The more it is expended or shared, the more it increases. Knowledge is prime amongst all wealths.
The message conveyed by this shloka (verse) resonates with the open access philosophy of sharing of knowledge without any barrier. The five laws of Library Science, as propounded by Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, are also in unison with open access. The second law of Library Science, i.e., “Every book its reader” and the third law, i.e., Every reader his/her book. clearly recommends open access to knowledge. Some of the important Indian initiatives in this direction are discussed below.
