Dear colleagues,

The moment has come when all the thoughts, ideas, the initiatives and the best experiences concerning Open Access to find a streamlined expression capable to set in motion a vector for actions in Romania.
To this purpose, The Understanding of Open Access has been launched. It is a document with a double significance: “understanding” as a consensual agreement among the signatories and “understanding” meaning a good apprehension of the concepts behind it.

What sparked this document?
Kosson community members shown a great interest and involvement for the valorisation of the electronic information resources in Open Access regime since 2005. From that moment on, a long path was followed in translating, studying and promoting the concepts and the models for the Open Access. In the year 2010, the Romanian Library Association adopted a Motion on Open Access during the national conference.
This important moment needed to be elevated in order to project concrete actions in the future and this led to this programatic and pragmatic document expressing the will and understanding of the Romanian stakeholders.

Why it needs your support and where to promote it?
The first answer springs out of the need to clearly state the fact it is not only necessary to have some knowledge about Open Access, but to understand what this means. This difference in semantics it is needed now more than ever when many things seems to dilute and apparently are being mangled in many other matters of concern.
Another answer is the need for more clarity in all it needs to be done in the future. To this purpose the document points to concrete objectives.

What is the purpose of the understanding?
It will lead to a better consolidation of the members actions around the community goals and offers solid guidelines to the knowledge gains and further development opportunities.
It offers a clear fixed mark for the future of the Open Access in Romania and Europe at large.
It constitutes the base for future actions and activities tightly linked to Open Access advocacy in Romania.
It will be the measure for future calibration of our performances as the objectives will be counted in solid facts for the Romanian society and for the world.

What can I do?
1. Read, understand and sign the document at http://startad.kosson.ro
2. Advertise and advocate among your fellow colleagues the existence of this document, what it means and what are the objectives.
3. Discuss among your friends and colleagues about the ways you could involve your institution in advocating Open Access to information.
4. Acquire deeper and useful knowledge about this paradigm because your institution will be affected in the future directly or by influence by the Open Access implementations.
5. Initiate debate, write useful materials and involve all the stuff working in your institution.
6. Take the document with you and convey its meanings and objectives further to the management level, and raise the awareness to the final goal of achieving an Open Access mandate and an institutional endorsement for the Understanding.

Let us dedicate some time to understand Open Access, together, for our better knowledge and for those whom we serve.

This is not a document addressed only to Romanian stakeholders. It has a wider scope as it reflects our efforts to integrate our actions on global level. You all are welcome and invited to endorse it! Thank you!