H.E. Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner of India was the Chief Guest at the 51st Annual General Meeting of Sri Lanka Library Association (SLLA) held today at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. Prof. Upali Amarasiri, President SLLA, Mrs. D. Andradi, President-elect, Mrs. Pushpamala Perera, General Secretary and Past Presidents of SLLA, welcomed the High Commissioner and after lighting of the traditional oil lamp, High Commissioner awarded the medals, awards and certificates to the members of SLLA in recognition of their professional achievements and services rendered.

In his remarks, Prof. Amarasiri highlighted that SLLA has excellent working relationship with its counterparts in India and was keen to further strengthen the professional and cultural relationship with India. He also highlighted that both the countries were playing active role in Regional Federation of South Asian Library Associations (REFSALA) and India will take over Chairmanship of REFSALA from Sri Lanka in 2013.

In his address, High Commissioner Ashok K. Kantha highlighted that he was delighted to address the distinguished members of SLLA at a time when Sri Lanka is well positioned to forge ahead as an economy, as a society and as a country after three decades of internal conflict and was poised to take advantage of the peace dividend and move towards reconciliation, peace, prosperity and development. High Commissioner underlined that India as closest neighbor and friend is ready to be Sri Lanka’s partner in this journey. He also highlighted that at the same time India is ready to reap the benefits of growing economy and has the huge demographic advantage to sustain momentum of growth. He emphasized that the timing was perfect for our two countries to be partners in progress.

High commissioner also dwelt upon the impact of technological advancements especially in the field of ICTs which has revolutionized the entire approach to how information is stored, processed and accessed. The advances made in recent years in the field of digital storage of data have enabled gigantic amounts of archival and current information to be digitally stored in a very small space and retrieved from distant locations with great ease. Similarly, technological innovations have resulted in availability of huge volumes of information on the interest in multiple media. The technological advancement provides an opportunity to redefine the way libraries are managed through an entirely new paradigm. The developing countries who still have a long way to create the necessary IT infrastructure and information literacy will have to make a fine balance between the existing libraries and the need to digitize them and integrate with the digital libraries. High Commissioner emphasized that capacity building of the Library and Information Science professionals will help in meeting these challenges. The Library professional will have to leap frog with the changes in technology and will have to strive towards digitization of the library and ultimately towards change to digital library. High Commissioner emphasized the increasing important role of open access movement worldwide and the libraries in India and Sri Lanka will need to make a paradigm shift to a strategy of knowledge access. High Commissioner also shared the policy recommendations given by the National Knowledge Commission of India, a high level advisory body to the Prime Minister, with an overarching aim to transport India into a vibrant knowledge based society. He called for sharing of best practices in the field of Library and Information Science bilaterally between India and Sri Lanka and through the mechanism of REFSALA.

High Commissioner announced that High Commission will be happy to facilitate strengthening of structural cooperation of SLLA with their counterparts in India and offered to provide support in the field of capacity building of SLLA professionals. High Commissioner also announced that India will be happy to facilitate training of SLLA professional at Centres of Excellence in India through its schemes and programmes such as ITEC.

High Commission also complimented SLLA for its pioneering work in the fields of library education and training, advocacy, publication of LIS literature and other professional activities.