
As reported earlier, we deeply regret to inform the sad demise of Mr. K. S Nagarajan a retired senior information Professional of INSDOC (an organ of CSIR) presently known as NISCAIR, on 12th May at Bangalore at the age of 91. Mr. Nagarajan started his career at National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore and later shifted to INSDOC an organ of CSIR. He was Officer- in- Charge of the Bangalore Centre of INSDOC from 1964 and retired as the Head, Regional Office, INSDOC in 1987. In 1967 when the Reprography technique was in nascent stage in India, Mr. Nagarajan made a detailed study of the technique, the use of various tools and instruments and published a technical paper on the ‘State of Reprography in India’ in 1967 in the Annals of Library Science. He was a recipient of the UNESCO fellowship during 1954-55 to visit USA & Europe to study the reprographic techniques then prevalent in the advanced countries. He taught Reprography course to the students of ADR at INSDOC Headquarters at New Delhi. He played an important role in bringing out various Union Catalogues of Scientific periodicals brought out by INSDOC. He published a number of articles on Reprography in different learned L & IS journals. He was the first Vice-President of Karnataka Library Association started after the Mysore Library Association became defunct. Apart from his contributions to the field of L& IS (especially Reprography) he was a well known Musicologist. After his retirement, he set up a multi-indexed and computerised database of Carnatic Music Compositions, lyricists and composers which was highly acclaimed. He was recognized for his phenomenal work of compilation and indexing by Gayana Samaja by bestowing the Artist of the year award in 2003 and a Life Time Achievement Award from Kensri School, Bangalore in 2011. He was invited by the prestigious Music Academy of Madras to deliver a lecture cum demonstration on his work in the December season in 1999. He has also delivered lectures on his seminal work in the US and other places whenever he used to visit those places. Mr. Nagarajan received a Senior Fellowship from the Department of Culture, Government of India and a grant from India Foundation for the Arts for setting up the multi-indexed computerized database of music composition consisting of more than 21,000 compositions, 1080 entries on lyricists and tunesmiths and more than 1800 entries on books and manuscripts. “The Hindu” newspaper had a befitting coverage on Mr.Nagarajan in the year 2000 for his indepth information and knowledge on Carnatic music. ( https://www.thehindu.com/2000/02/07/stories/09070704.htm) He was associated with ‘Ananya’ , a non-profit cultural organization promoting cultural art forms of India in Bangalore and contributed regularly to their magazine on different artists and their performances. He was also a Senior most volunteer in the Bangalore chapter of SPIC MACAY from 1987 and continued to be associated with its activities and events for many years. Mr. Nagarajan leaves behind his two sons Mr. K.N. Srikanth and Mr. K.N. Arun, his daughters -in law, a large family of grand children, well wishers and innumerable L & IS Professionals. Incidentally his wife Mrs. Vatsala Nagarajan, a well- known and much admired professor at IIM, Bangalore passed away just three days after his demise. We pray God to give enough strength to his family and well wishers to bear his loss. *Unfortunately we have not been able to give correct dates/years of all the events mentioned in this note above. It will be appreciated if anyone knows more information on this shares the details*. A Ratnakar, Former librarian, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore. Mobile:9891390300 Christina Birdie, Former librarian, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Mobile:99808295 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
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Ratnakar Aspari