A Note from the Web Editor

I am pleased to accept the voluntary position of Web Editor to the IFLA Library History special interest group (SIG) since February 2016. The subject area of this SIG is particularly fascinating to me, as I am particularly interested in communicating research on the history of librarianship in the Global South, in the Developing Countries, and in the de-colonized countries that got independence in the 20th century AD. Over the centuries, the public libraries shaped the culture of a society and reading habits of its citizens. In the twenty-first century, libraries facilitate universal access to knowledge in many continents. While the World Bank in its World Development Report 2016 has focused on digital dividends, we still have communities that do not have access to the internet and even electricity. A knowledge divide or a digital divide is still in existence in different parts of the world. Thus, we need to focus on lessons learned from the library history in emerging economies, particularly from the BRICS nations (namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and also from the developed countries.

About the Web Editor

Dr Anup Kumar Das is a Web Editor to the IFLA Library History SIG. He is an avid academic researcher and information specialist working in an interdisciplinary research centre at Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research interests revolve around information policies, cultural policies, open access to knowledge, digital libraries, history of librarianship, safeguarding documentary heritages, library advocacy, and South Asian studies. He is a Book Review Editor of the Journal of Scientometric Research. He was a Consultant to UNESCO New Delhi and Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA). He has published two books: Open Access to Knowledge and Information: Scholarly Literature and Digital Library Initiatives – the South Asian Scenario (2008); and Collaboration in International and Comparative Librarianship (2014). He contributed four self-directed learning modules and 14 self-learning units in a set of UNESCO Open Access Curricula for Researchers and Library Schools, 2015. He has published about 60+ research papers in different scholarly journals, edited books and international conferences. Twitter: @IndiaSTS (official) @AannuuppK (personal); Web: www.anupkumardas.blogspot.in.