Dear Members, Greetings from the NCSI-NET Foundation. The T.B. Rajashekar Memorial Lecture 2025 will be held online to commemorate the late Dr. T.B. Rajashekar's lasting contributions to the library and information science field, particularly in advancing open access and digital library infrastructure in India. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Madhan Muthu, Director (Library), OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India, will deliver this year’s memorial lecture on the following topic: Building Open Access Infrastructure Using Interoperable Technologies and Capacity Building: The Idea Behind T.B. Rajashekar’s Initiatives The lecture will revisit Dr. Rajashekar’s pioneering work promoting interoperable institutional repositories and empowering LIS professionals through open-source technologies and nationwide training programs. It will reflect on the relevance of his vision in today’s global push for open, accessible, and interoperable scholarly infrastructure and discuss how Indian library professionals can continue to build on this legacy. Interoperable institutional repositories came to India as early as the open access movement began gaining momentum worldwide, thanks to the pioneering initiatives of T.B. Rajasekar and his colleagues at NCSI in the early 2000s. They established India's first such repository and made significant efforts to empower librarians nationwide by conducting workshops to share their expertise on open-source platforms. Indian librarians had valuable opportunities and support, such as tools and training, to promote open access in India. However, have they truly taken advantage of those opportunities? Madhan's talk will explore Rajasekar's emphasis on interoperable, institutionally-defined repositories that enable easy, web-wide access and visibility of research papers through seamless metadata sharing. He will also discuss why Rajasekar’s foundational work remains essential, why it must be continued, and what librarians in India can do to carry forward his legacy, particularly now (though belatedly), when there is growing global recognition of the value of interoperable repositories. Madhan will further highlight recent developments in metadata aggregation and improvements in secondary information services. Platform: Microsoft Teams Mode: Online only Date & Time: Tuesday, 24 June 2025, 3.30 P.M. IST Meeting link: Will be shared in the following announcement We invite you to join us for this session as Dr Madhan reflects on the past and looks ahead to the future of open access. Warm regards, Francis Francis Jayakanth (On behalf of the Organising Team)