[From Peter Suber's Open Access News:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2005_06_05_fosblogarchive.html#a111841815966459955 ]
T.B. Rajashekar
Dr. T.B. Rajashekar, a leader of the OA movement in India, died in a
car accident on June 3. Here's a short obituary by Vikas Kamat:
http://www.kamat.com/vikas/blog.php?BlogID=850
"Dr. T.B. Rajashekar who was serving as Associate Chairman,
National Center for Science Information (NCSI) at the Indian
Institute of Science died in an automobile accident last week.
http://144.16.72.189/raja/
"A brilliant information scientist, Dr. Rajashekhar had in recent
years spearheaded the Institutional Repositories Movement in India
as part of the Open Access (OA) Movement.
http://www.kamat.com/vikas/blog.php?BlogID=714
"His articles on Digital Libraries and Metadata aggregation were
both educational and inspiring. In fact I was browsing through
his article "Towards a Global Digital Library for Education and
Research" published in "Turning Pages --Reflections in Info-times"
when I got the news.
http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/pipermail/lis-forum/2005-June/002315.html
"Rajashekar obtained his doctorate in library and information
science from University of Pune. Prior to joining NCSI, he had
worked at National Informatics Center (New Delhi), at the British
Council Library, and as a consultant to UNESCO on e-learning
systems. He was the architect of the J-Gate electronic journals
management and access system popular in India.
"We will miss him."
Posted by Peter Suber at 11:35 AM.
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Note added by Stevan Harnad
Raja founded and was well on the way to filling the Open
Access Eprints Archive at the Indian Institute of Science.
http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Feprints.iisc.ernet.in%2F
He was also helping other research institutions in India to found and
fill their own OA Archives. He was hosting and collaborating with OA
activists from around the world such as the University of Toronto's
Leslie Chan and the University of Southampton's Leslie Carr, and he was
reporting his progress and his plans at international meetings such
as the Current Science Festschrift for Eugene Garfield, in Chennai
September 2000
http://tejas.serc.iisc.ernet.in/~currsci/ and the NASP
(International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications)
and WAME (World Association of Medical Editors) and JPGM (Journal of
Postgraduate Medicine) Golden Jubilee in Mumbai September 2004.
http://www.jpgmonline.com/goldcon.asp
Raja's energy, resourcefulness, focus and determination will be greatly missed.
And he will not live to have seen the fruits of his efforts. But his pioneering
role in providing Open Access to India and to the world will not be forgotten.
Heartfelt condolences to the members of his family. With their bitter loss they
also have occasion to feel defiant pride.
Received on Fri Jun 10 2005 - 20:24:26 BST