Obaiah B
Obaiah B has MSc in Library and Information Science from the University of Mysore and a PG Diploma in Information and Knowledge Management from the Indian Institute of Science. He also cleared UGC-NET-JRF.
As ATREE’s Senior Library and Information Officer, Obaiah’s main task is to establish a world class library facility. He has continued to improve and expand our library resources through his prolonged interest in knowledge organization, digital preservation, digital archives, and perpetual access to scholarly content. He has also designed and implemented a union catalogue of multiple independent libraries of Bangalore using Koha and Open Harvester and he trained many young professionals in the latest library technologies.
Before joining ATREE, he trained at the JRD Tata Memorial Library, Indian Institute of Science (IISc). During the course on Information and Knowledge Management at the erstwhile National Centre for Science Information, he had a great opportunity to learn and obtain hands-on experience with many open source tools, such as ePrints, Dspace, Drupal, Zoomla, WordPress, Moodle, LOCKSS, Open Journal System, Open Harvester and Koha. In addition, he learned many Linux-based servers, especially Fedora 5-12 version and Open BSD, Redhat Linux, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian.
In 2008-09, Obaiah was associated with the “Digitization of Manuscripts in South India” project, which is part of the National Mission for Manuscripts, Government of India. He led a team of 12 technicians on image enhancement techniques and digitized one million manuscripts and he brought to light and saved numerous important traditional Indian knowledge sources to the society, which were otherwise hidden in isolated dark rooms.
In addition to this, Obaiah has cultivated an impeccable fascination with literature. With that passion, he wrote and published an outstanding work in Kannada a novel titled Bayakeya Benneri in 2022, which has been widely acclaimed by Kannada readers across the state of Karnataka. As most of his writings talk about the neo-liberal social change, and migration issues of the 21st century, he constantly expresses his views on contemporary social issues and challenges anticipated by the first-generation educated family background young population in India. His writings are accessible in his blog named “nannanisikegalu”.
Obaiah has also written a number of poems and short stories in Kannada which can be read on his blog “nannanisikegalu”. In 2022, during ATREE's 25th-anniversary celebration, he penned a song named "ATREE Anthem'' that has been applauded not only by the ATREE community but the wider audience across the disciplines. Apart from his literary writings, he has kept the intention of becoming a good motivational speaker in Kannada, engaged in screenplay writing for the Kannada cinema, and also calls himself a political strategist. Obaiah spends his free time reading books, writings, and visiting tourist places with his friends and family members.