In early March, the world celebrates Open Data Day. This tradition was started by a non-profit called Open Knowledge Foundation, which continues to coordinate Open Data Day events today. Previously celebrated on a single day, Open Data Day has now been extended to an entire week to accommodate the many hackathons, public lectures, and other events taking place across the globe.
Open data refers to digital data that is made available with the technical and legal characteristics necessary for it to be freely used, reused, and redistributed by anyone, anytime, anywhere [1]. The term "open data" is most often associated with datasets released by public-sector institutions and businesses, but data collected and shared by researchers working at academic institutions can also be considered a distinct subset of open data.
Open data not only brings transparency to the activities of organisations that produce it and encourages the public to be more engaged in how taxpayer money is spent, but it can also inspire the creation of various digital tools that make everyday life easier. One of the best-known digital solutions born from open data is OpenStreetMap, a digital world map created by volunteer cartographers that has, in turn, been used in other well-known products, such as the short-term rental app Airbnb and the sports app Strava.
VU Library congratulates everyone on Open Data Day. We remind you that Lithuania’s public sector open data can be found on the Lithuanian Open Data Portal, the European Union’s open data are available via data.europa.eu, and members of the VU community who wish to share their research data can do so through the National Open Access Research Data Archive (MIDAS). If you have a question or need to book a consultation, you can do so through VU Library’s Open Science Consultation Portal.
[1] Definition from the International Open Data Charter.
Dr Gintė Medzvieckaitė
2026-03-05