Yesan Sellan is the Chief Librarian at South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) (FTE: 125) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He has been a member of ACL since 2008.
Describe yourself using a book title: Making Christ Known to Become True Believers
What’s the best thing about being a librarian? The joy of serving others with intellectual, leisure and light-reading needs without any prejudice and to be available for others gives immense pleasure of serving Him, the Creator and Redeemer.
What are you currently reading? Jesus Driven Ministry by Ajith Fernando and The Radical Disciple by John Stott
Describe ACL: Excel and Empower
How do you, as an academic librarian, contribute to your campus? As an academic librarian, I have moral responsibilities to create awareness among seminarians on various available learning resources and to provide a conducive environment to access such resources. I’m involved in teaching a research methodology course with a team and I mentoring students throughout the year. I also serve on the campus planning and IT committee. I’m also the coordinator for the Centre for South Asia Research, the collaborative project of Theological Book Network, Scholar Leaders and SAIACS.
I began my career as a librarian...in 1998, as a learner in Library and Information Science profession. My attitude of perseverance and hardworking principles yielded its fruits of success. Encounters with different types of users helped me to be more relevant and shaped me to be available. Successes and failures taught to be humble and brave; to fight all odds and overcome challenges. Working with faculty and library staff gave me insights and energy to develop team spirit and ignite the minds of others to achieve pursuits of excellence. Serving seminarians gives joy of being part of their formation and sense of satisfaction to have developed Christ-like leaders for global church. Failures gave me courage to face next challenge with new mind and energy and succeeded. Successes taught to be humble and know my limit and had to sustain such excellences. Praise God, His grace is sufficient for me – 2 Corinthians 12:9
How were you introduced to ACL? Mr. William Dale Ward, retired librarian from Ottawa, Canada, introduced me to ACL. I heard about ACL’s ministry beyond North America, supporting the development of theological librarianship across globe.
What do you value about ACL? I value ACL’s commitment to the development of evangelical librarians. CLC is an excellent opportunity that helped many growing libraries like ours to acquire and enhance digital collections for our users.