Dear all,

I have known Dr. Francis Jayakanth since 1988. I was on the IISc campus for 10 years, during which we met him almost every day, along with Dr. Rajasekar, Mr. Srinivasa Ravi, and others.

I moved to Chennai in 1993. Over the years, I have posted many messages about SALIS programmes and activities in LIS-Forum. I also met Dr. Francis Jayakanth several times during the National Knowledge Resource Consortium meetings. 

We invited him on several occasions to conduct workshops in our SALIS conferences.

He has been the moderator of LIS-Forum for more than 35 years. He approved messages posted to the forum with complete fairness and without any partiality. Being a moderator is not an easy task. He spent several hours almost every day reading and approving messages.

He possesses extensive knowledge of open-source software such as DSpace,  EPrints, etc.. He has been one of the pioneers in promoting the Open Access movement in India. He has conducted numerous workshops and delivered hundreds of lectures on open access, open-source software, and related tools.

He is well known to library and information science professionals across India. Despite his accomplishments, he remains a simple, humble, and down-to-earth person.

On behalf of SALIS and on my own behalf, I wish him a happy, healthy, peaceful, and active retired life.

Dr. A. Hariharan

Former Head, Knowledge Resource Centre, 

CSIR-SERC, Chennai and

Founder President, SALIS