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 Prof Piyadasa Ranasinghe (1949-2016):
A humane scholar
Ranasinghe Arachchige Piyadasa Ranasinghe, who died on August 4,
2016, donned many a hat at the University of Kelaniya, namely Senior
Professor, Department of Library and Information Science, Director,
Research Centre for Social Sciences, and Director, Palm Leaf Manuscript
Research Centre. He had the distinction of being the first de jure
Professor of Library and Information Science in Sri Lanka, and the first
Emeritus professor in the Sri Lankan LIS profession. Apart from his
expertise in his profession, he was one of the well-known scholars in
Sri Lanka who started his career as a lecturer in the Department of
Sinhala, University of Kelaniya.
Just before turning to librarianship, he had served as an Assistant
Editor of the Sinhala Dictionary where he had the rare opportunity to
work under Prof. D. E. Hettiarachchi, a renowned Oriental scholar and
lexicographer. His library career began in 1979 on being appointed
Assistant Librarian of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura.
 In 1990, he returned to the University of Kelaniya as a Senior
Assistant Librarian and the Head, Department of Library and Information
Science of the University. Thereafter, there was no looking back on the
cultivated path of professional fame and achievements. He won an
Australian Government Scholarship in 1992 to join the School of
Information, Library and Archival Studies of the University of New South
Wales, Australia. There he earned his M. Lib. Research Degree under the
supervision of highly acclaimed scholars Prof. Boyd Rayward and Dr. Jack
Nelson. His thesis 'Sri Lanka National Bibliography and the
Bibliographical Tradition of Sri Lanka' was accepted as the first
serious research on bibliographical tradition and the bibliographic
control of Sri Lanka.
He returned as the acting librarian of the University of Kelaniya
from 1994 till he became the founder Librarian of the newly established
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka in 1996. He developed the library
system in the university from the scratch. Kelaniya University invited
him in 1998 to rejoin to Head the Department of Library and Information
Science. He nurtured the department as one of the best academic
departments of the university and it was a highly recognized library
education centres in the country. He was elevated to Professor and
remained as Head of Department for more than 10 years. He has left his
indelible footprints for his successors.
His scholarship was multi-faceted. Apart from library and information
science he had researched into the areas of indigenous knowledge,
Buddhism, Manuscripts, and Intangible cultural heritage. In 2001-2002 he
was the recipient of the prestigious Japan Foundation Senior Fellowship
for research on the Sources of Japanese Studies at Saga University,
Japan in collaboration with Urata Yoshikazu, Professor of Humanities. In
2012, he served as a visiting professor in the Digital Library Learning
Program at University of Parma, Italy. He served as an expert in
developing the Curricula for the training course on Building Strong
Library Associations of IFLA in the Hague, in 2009. After retirement
from Kelaniya in 2014, he was invited to serve as the Library and
Information Professor of the Nagananda International Buddhist Studies
Centre, Sri Lanka, and also continued as director of the Palm Leaf
Research Centre at Kelaniya.
As a prolific writer more than 10 monographs, nearly 70 articles on
Library and Information Science and related subjects are to his credit.
He skillfully translated five literary works and four works on other
subjects from different languages. Apart from membership of the UNESCO
Memory of the World Project, he chaired a number Committees in the
National Library and Documentation Services Board of Sri Lanka. He
brought laurels to the University as the Coordinator of the First
International Conference on Social Sciences held in 2008 in the
University of Kelaniya.
For the services he rendered for success of this Conference he was
awarded 'Most Outstanding Promoter of International Relations in the
University'. He served with distinction as President of Sri Lankan
Library Association from 2007-2009. His contribution for the advancement
of Library Science in Sri Lanka are path breaking. The respects and
admiration of his students, colleagues and seniors, and his professional
achievements were reflected in a voluminous festschrift* presented to
him at a well attended function on his retirement in 2014.
His multidisciplinary achievements in education, culture, libraries
and international cooperation were recognized with the Asian Library
Leaders Life Time Achievement Award (ALL-LTAW)-2014. With his sudden
demise, the country has lost an outstanding scholar and Kelaniya has
lost an able teacher.
M P Satija
Guru Nanak Dev University,
India
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