Information access

Information access is the freedom or ability to identify, obtain and make use of <a href="/facts/Databases/VYcpkevb">database</a> or information effectively.
There are various research efforts in information access for which the objective is to simplify and make it more effective for human users to access and further process large and unwieldy amounts of data and <a href="/facts/Information/3LdrzXtJ">information</a>.
Several technologies applicable to the general area are <a href="/facts/Information_Retrieval/MFSmpeNw">Information Retrieval</a>, <a href="/facts/Text_mining/5QsIa3Cz">Text Mining</a>, <a href="/facts/Machine_Translation/DGF3NwuI">Machine Translation</a>, and <a href="/facts/Text_categorisation/B69lL6BH">Text Categorisation</a>.
During discussions on free access to information as well as on <a href="/facts/Information_policy/vfIxFThD">information policy</a>, information access is understood as concerning the insurance of free and closed access to <a href="/facts/Information/3LdrzXtJ">information</a>. Information access covers many issues including <a href="/facts/Copyright/7GHEWEx9">copyright</a>, <a href="/facts/Open-source_model/uDWVYJ4V">open source</a>, <a href="/facts/Privacy/C269YalS">privacy</a>, and <a href="/facts/Security/B4uxkyxh">security</a>.
Groups such as the <a href="/facts/American_Library_Association/3jVtqULk">American Library Association</a>, the <a href="http://www.aallnet.org">American Association of Law Libraries</a>, <a href="/facts/Ralph_Nader/CMlYBNxC">Ralph Nader</a>'s <a href="http://www.tap.org">Taxpayers Assets Project</a> have advocated for free access to <a href="/facts/Legal_research/Lxa49zFd">legal information</a>. The <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050403183057/http://www.aallnet.org/committee/citation/">vendor neutral citation</a> movement in the <a href="/facts/Legal/luzxWkg0">legal</a> field is working to ensure that courts will accept <a href="/facts/Case_citation/EGhw3TGz">citations</a> from cases on the web which do not have the traditional (copyrighted) page numbers from the <a href="/facts/West_Publishing/ImB952vz">West Publishing</a> company. There is a worldwide <a href="/facts/Free_Access_to_Law_Movement/u20FgAhU">Free Access to Law Movement</a> which advocates free access to legal information. The Wired Magazine Article <a href="https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.05/the.law.html">Who Owns The Law</a> is an introduction to the access to legal information issue. Postsecondary organizations such as K-12 work to share information. They feel it is a legal and moral obligation to provide access (including to people with disabilities or impairments) to information through the services and programs they offer.
Some effects of charging for information access, such as literature searches for physicians, is studied in the article "Fee or Free: The Effect of Charging on Information Demand". In this study, a $5 charge resulted in a 77% decrease in searches.

Information access open-in-new

Information access