13th International Conference of University Librarians Association (ICULA 2023)

13^th International Conference of University Librarians Association (ICULA 2023)

The 13th International Conference of University Librarians Association (ICULA 2023) was held on 26^th October 2023 at the Hotel Mt. Lavania in Colombo on theme of “Transforming Academic Libraries for a Sustainable Future”. Eng. (Dr.) Udeni Wickramasinghe, Chairman of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC) of Sri Lanka graced the inaugural session of the ICULA 2023 as the Chief Guest. The Keynote Speech on the topic of “Digital transformation of academic libraries for a sustainable future” was delivered by Senior Professor K. P. Hewagamage, University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC). The conference had three (03) technical sessions with carefully selected thirteen (13) papers including full papers and extended abstracts.

The first technical session was on “Supporting sustainability in teaching, learning and research” and Dr. Prasanna Ranaweera, Senior Lecturer of NILIS, University of Colombo chaired the session. The second technical session was on “AI, digital transformation and sustainability in libraries” was chaired by Dr. (Mrs.) M. M. Mashroofa, Senior Assistant Librarian, South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. The third technical session was on “Sustainable academic publishing practices” and Dr. W.J. Jeyeraj, Librarian, Eastern University Sri Lanka chaired the session. Over 100 participants representing various sectors such as academic libraries, research libraries, national libraries, as well as LIS education attended the conference.

Ms. A. P. U. De Silva and Ms. B. G. S. P. Wimalasiri from the University of Kelaniya won the ‘Best Paper Award’ while Mr. B. E. S. Bandara from the University of Peradeniya won the ‘Best Paper Presenter Award’ of ICULA 2023.

Dr. W. M. T. D. Ranasinghe, President of ULA, served as the Chairperson of the conference. Dr. (Mrs.) D. N. T. Gunawardhana and Mr. S. Santharooban were the conference Co-Secretaries. Mrs. T.M. Seneviratne served as the Editor-in-Chief of ICULA Proceedings 2023. Dr. C. C. Jayasundara, Librarian, University of Kelaniya and Dr. W. J. Jeyaraj, Librarian, Eastern University Sri Lanka were the conference advisors.