The National Science Foundation (NSF) successfully hosted its landmark Digital Library Conference 2024 under the theme "Empowering Scholarly Communication and Digital Access: Strategies for Sustainable Journal Management and Digital Library Consortium Development in Sri Lanka," which was held on December 6 in Colombo. The event brought distinguished leaders, scholars, and professionals in the field to discuss and deliberate on advancement of the future of digital library services in Sri Lanka. Hon. Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya attended the event as the Chief Guest whilst Hon. Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Chrishantha Abeysena was the Guest of Honor. Discussions and deliberations of the event surfaced transformative initiatives in shaping the future academic and research landscape of the nation in the context of digital era.
In the keynote address by the Hon. Prime Minister, she highlighted the crucial role of digital libraries in empowering knowledge-driven societies, advocating for evidence-based decision-making and inclusive information access. She also emphasized importance of taking social science onboard. She acknowledged the NSF’s dedication to fostering open science and innovation, aligning with the national vision for sustainable development. Hon. Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Chrishantha Abeysena underscored the importance of collaboration among academia, libraries, and policymakers to harness digital technologies, bridging knowledge gaps and advancing Sri Lanka’s global competitiveness. He also highlighted the importance of implementing the National Digital Library Consortium in 2025, which has potential to yield benefits such as resource sharing, cost savings, and improved access to cutting edge knowledge through global research databases.
The NSF Chairman, Prof. Saman Seneweera, in his speech highlighted strategies towards integrating digital libraries into higher education, ensuring seamless access to scholarly resources to ensure progressive advancement of the knowledge creation and innovation process. In delivering the welcome and opening remarks, NSF Director General Dr. Sepalika Sudasinghe highlighted the NSF commitment towards digital transformation and contribution to digital economy through initiatives namely modernizing digital library platforms, supporting open-access publishing, and capacity-building of librarians and researchers. Mr. Manuja Krunaratne, Head of the National Science Library and Resource Centre (NSLRC), NSF highlighted the envisaged National Digital Library Consortium as a milestone for strengthening library networks, emphasizing collaborative digitization projects and equitable resource access.
The conference featured engaging sessions covering the topics such as artificial intelligence in digital library services, open science promotion, and enhancing scholarly citation metrics. Panel discussion triggered enthusiastic participation, surfacing recommendations such as implementing a National Research Data Repository for Sri Lanka, developing policies to ensure responsible AI, research publications in the context of AI, and pronounced support schemes to foster open-access publishing. The NSF Digital Library Conference 2024 concluded with paving way forwards for a collective commitment towards transforming Sri Lanka’s knowledge ecosystem through innovative, inclusive, and sustainable digital library services.
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Visit our YouTube channel to recap the recording of the live event
Morning sesssion : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHzMYLSucOE
Afternoon session : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4arteTko_do