BIOGRAPHY

Thankavadivel Ramanan is, at present, serving as a Senior Assistant Librarian (Grade 1) at the University of Colombo (Sri Lanka) since December 2020.  He started his career path as an Assistant Lecturer in the year 2003 at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture of Eastern University, Sri Lanka. He graduated in Agriculture (Hon.) from the same university in 2002, and secured second class (upper division).  His interests in social work made him enjoy an opportunity in Action contre la Faim in 2004, which was volunteering in the war-torn areas of Sri Lanka. Having followed a diploma in Library & Information Science conducted by the Sri Lanka Library Association, he was intrigued by the library profession and joined the Library of Eastern University in November 2004. He finished his research in Master of Library and Information Science at the University of Colombo in 2010. A diploma in Human Resource Management was also added to his career development record. He has been engaged in conducting lectures for both graduate and diploma students who follow library and information science, for the past ten years. He was offered an Indian Fellowship in 2011 in modern library practices. He received short-term training on data curation in Ha Noi, Vietnam in 2014, which was organized by Special Libraries Association (SLA). He was given with IATUL and BI International Grants to present and discuss his work in indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage at IATUL 2015 in Hannover, Germany. He convened a national conference of Sri Lanka Library Association in 2016 (NACLIS). In 2018, Ramanan had an opportunity explore the western world so he migrated to Canada where he worked for George Brown College, McMaster University, Access Corporation of Information Management, and Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) in library and information roles. With over 40 publications in international journals and national and international conferences, he extended his services as the chief editor of Journal of University Librarians’ Association, Sri Lanka, and reviewer for African Educational Research Journal, International Research Publication House (India), and NILIS Symposium (Sri Lanka). By holding a charted librarianship from Sri Lanka Library Association, his social responsibility extends to workshops and seminars conducted for school and public librarians in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. His research interests are in social networks and Library 2.0, knowledge management, library consortium, indigenous knowledge development, cultural heritage, digital repositories, green library technology, information literacy, bibliometric studies, and LIS education. Currently, he is following a Bachelor’s Degree in Law at the Open University of Sri Lanka.