Keynote speaker on Monday 31 October

Hon’ble Mahalaxmi Shrestha is the member of Constituent Assembly of Nepal and Member of Parliament of Nepal. She is the former librarian of Nepal. She has graduated Bachelor in Library Science & Documentation from Rajasthan University – India in 1977. She worked in library for more than 35 Years in Tribhuvan University and its constituent campuses. She has two books on her credit. She has translated and published articles on Marx and letters of Marx and Jeni Marx and Brave fighters of Vietnam Nygun Wan Trwai. She is affiliated to many social welfare organizations. Currently she is the president of Tulasi Mehar Foundation.

Amarasiri is the director general of the National Library and Documentations Services Board of Sri Lanka.

He has since 1998 been a member of the editorial board of Information Development, published by Bowker/Saur, representing Asia Oceania region. He is the chair of the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Committee for Library, Information Services and Archives, from Januar 2005. In 1986 he received the IFLA Martinus Nijhoff award.

Keynote speaker on Wednesday 2 November

Dr Pramod Dhakal became the Member-Secretary of the Open University of Nepal Initiative Steering Committee following the signing of "Resolution Agreement 2010" for partnership and collaboration between the Government of Nepal and Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) on October 7, 2010. Along with this responsibility, he is an International Coordination Council Member of NRNA, International Affairs Coordinator of NRN-Canada, and the Executive Director of Canada Foundation for Nepal (CFFN).