Dr S. Venkadesan, the Director of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) at the Indian School of Business, passed away on 27 May, 2018. Dr Venkadesan had been at ISB since April 2011, and in that period, also held positions as Director, Information Technology and Director, Operations.
A Metallurgist and Materials Engineer by profession, Dr. Venkadesan headed the Materials Technology Section of the Materials Division at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu for two decades. He shifted thereafter to the Library and Information Science Division which he headed till 2003. While there, he piloted many new initiatives to create a Digital Library at IGCAR. Later he was selected by a National Search Committee to head the JRD Tata Memorial Library at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) till March 2011. During his tenure at IISc, he was actively involved with the Digital Library of India and served as a member in the Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST) consortium and the UGC N-List Programme of MHRD.
Dr. Venkadesan was fondly called and will continue to be remembered as ‘Venky’ by all who knew him, Balasubramanian S P A, Associate Director, LRC writes. More from his moving tribute:
It is unimaginable that a person who was so active and cheerful the previous night was no more the next morning. Venky had lived a meaningful life and embraced death with a smile and taught us to be of service to others even after death. Having worked closely with him for more than seven years, I saw a kind and humane person, a man who possessed great qualities, admirable values and was down to earth by nature. The relationship we had with him was not that of a superior and a subordinate, but one built on mutual trust. At ISB, he was also entrusted with additional responsibilities as the Director of Information Technology and Operations, which he handled with great ease. He stated on several occasions that the LRC was on auto-pilot, needing little intervention from him.
The library fraternity lost a valuable professional who offered out-of-the-box solutions for library management. His contribution to the field of the library and information science is invaluable. His memory will continue to live with us and will guide us forever.