It is with deep sorrow that I inform the LIS community that Ms Barbara Kirsop, a great champion of the cause of unhindered access to and free flow of knowledge, passed away at the age of 93. She lived in Worksop, UK, but she was a citizen of the world and a great friend of science in the developing countries. She not only believed that developed countries have much to learn from the developing countries and the transfer of knowledge from the South to the North is equally important as that from the North to the South, but also worked tirelessly towards correcting the imbalance. She was one of the founders of Bioline International and the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, the organization that gave awards to both Dr Francis Jayakanth and Muthu Madhan for contributing to the development of OA in India . "She was a very special human being and the world was better for her passing through it," says Alma Swan who co-drafted the Bangalore Declaration on Open Access in 2006 [https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/92/03/0276.pdf]. Ms Kirsop conducted, along with her long-time associate Leslie Chan, India's first workshop on electronic publishing in 2002 at the Indian Institute of Science, and one of the participants, Dr D K Sahu, went on to become a champion of OA and a leading publisher of peer-reviewed OA journals in the world.
I have had the privilege of working with Ms Kirsopr and co-authoring several papers with her and Prof. Chan, all of them open access of course.
Barbara was a gentle soul, kindness personified, but when it came to achieving our common goal of universal open access she remained a frontline soldier, steadfast and uncompromising.
In her passing the OA movement and researchers in the Global South have lost a true champion. And I have lost a great friend, mentor and guide. The best tribute we can pay her is to take forward her unfinished work.
Subbiah Arunachalam
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Arun
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-4658
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/B-9925-2009
