20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Role of the library in providing access... 263awareness” (knowing and observing the rights to public interest informationand the possibilities to use it in everyday life); organizing various meetingsof public content and character, etc.The local public administration has appreciated the importance of publiclibraries in ensuring transparency by providing public interest informationto people and has found different ways of effective cooperation. Amongthem we point out the Public Library of Coloniţa, Chişinău, Public Libraryof Baraboi, Donduşeni; Public Library of Old Crihana, Cahul, etc., thatthrough their many activities contribute to ensuring the transparency oflocal public administrations; boost the participatory spirit in communitydecision making; organize various round tables, debates on environmentalprotection; inform and familiarize the public with the application andtheopportunities and rights provided by the Aarhus Convention, etc. These arejust some of the initiatives and actions of libraries aimed at strengtheningdemocracy.In this context, I would like to refer to one of the leading thinkers incommunication, Marshall McLuhan who believes that the material andspiritual progress of humanity is due not to working tools, economy orpolitics but to the communication technologies. This is the methodologicalprinciple used by the author in his theory. In other words, it is communicationthat leads to social progress.A fundamental requirement of democracy is the existence of a developedinformation system. It is a precondition for an interactive dialogue betweencitizens and authorities. Creating an information system for citizens inrelation with the public administration using modern technologies to store,access and disseminate information would ensure transparency betweenthe civil society and the authorities.In these circumstances, the library manifests its vocation of elementof the civil society and part of the cultural infrastructure thus exercising itsaction both in the social and cultural spaces.The library, citizens, public authorities – are those actors who forma relational field in which public information circulates. Within thisfield, the citizen’s right to information is valued and exercised. Its valuesrequire such a responsibility that would ensure an unhindered exercise ofthe right to information; combine information environments and carriers;assert itself as an agent of socialization cultivating public awareness;realize its potential of authority in the field of knowledge, information anddocumentation; contribute to the empowerment of citizens by providingprompt and comprehensive information; develop social solidarity.In September 2006, at the conference Free Access to Information: