Dr. R.P. Kumar (President)

Dr. R.P. Kumar retired as Chief Librarian at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in March 2008 after working for more than 25 years. He is an Educationist and a Librarian with five years teaching and thirty years administrative experience. He is highly qualified professionals with M.Sc. in Zoology from Banaras Hindu University, Masters and Ph.D. in Library Science from Panjab University, Certificate in French language from Alliance Francaisce, Hyderabad and Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications from Y.M.C.A., New Delhi. He is amongst the first few professionals in India to do Ph.D. in Library Science in 1981. He is a gold medallist from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He is the recipients of various awards including the 1st ILA-Kaula Best librarian award (1994), 1st SALIS International achievement award (U.S.A.-1988), MLAI-S.J. Kulkarni award for librarian of the year (2001), IASLIC Librarian of the year Award (2002), IASLIC -Life time achievement award (2015). He was awarded the rank of Honorary Librarian Moody Medical Library, Galveston, U.S.A.; in 2001.He was awarded the fellowship by Society of Information Science (SIS), New Delhi in 2003, NIH Fellow, USA (1992), WHO Fellow (2001). He was also awarded the certificate of honour by Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres (IASLIC) in 2005. He is also the recipient of SATKAL’S Punjab National Librarian Award in 2006 and also MLAI Fellowship in 2006.He got First MLAI-Life Time Achievement Award in 2007. He has visited 52 countries and delivered number of professional lectures, both at National level and globally. He has introduced many modern technologies in the AIIMS library. He has authored and edited Ten books and number of research papers in National and International journals of repute. He has chaired number of scientific sessions in conferences in India and abroad. He arranged five National training programmes on Modern Technologies for Information handling (1996-2000) and trained about 300 library professionals from India and abroad. He is a member board of studies of various universities and expert member of number of selection committees including DRDO, UPSC, CSIR, ICMR and various Universities. He has been nominated as member Delhi Library Board for three years (2006-2008).

He is the Vice President of Medical Library Association of India (2006- ) and was its secretary from 1992-2006. He is the founder Chairman South Asia Region of Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists (SALIS-U.S.A.) from 1990-2001 and again from 2006 till date. He was the founder President of ITLISA (Indian Technoscience Librarians and Information Specialists Association) 1985-87. He was the Senior Vice President of Association of Government Librarians and Information Specialist (AGLIS) from 1990-92). He was also the Honorary General Secretary of Indian Library Association from 1996-98 and Vice President of IASLIC from 1996-2002, three terms in consecutive. He was member of International Programme Committee and International Organizing Committee of 8th International Congress on Medical Librarianship held at London in July 2000. He is the Chief Editor of MLAI News since 1994 and member editorial board of MLAI Bulletin. He was also a member of 10th International Committee of International Congress on Medical Librarianship held in Australia in 2009. He is also the founder President of Association of Senior Library and Information Professionals (ASLIP) since 2020.