Ajita Thuraisingham was Assistant Librarian at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies while I was Librarian. One of her tasks was the compilation of the second volume of the ASEAN Bibliography for1981-85 which was published in 1988. This volume was a regional effort in that it included contributions from cooperating regional librarians and included the holdings of libraries in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Japan. When the bibliography was completed, it contained 6,400 entries and was acknowledged as a major contribution to the efforts of scholars and governments working towards building the idea of region. Ajita brought to library work a high level of intellectual input and this was to bring quality into the editing process.Ajita left Singapore shortly after that and I lost touch with her but I still remember the good times and the good professional discussions we had together.

Patricia Lim