S. R. Ranganathan: library and documentation scientist
By Md. Nurul Islam
Siyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (S.R.R.)
was a mathematician and renowned
library information scientist of our country.
His dedication to life, duty and sense
was strongly influenced by philosophy of
the Bhagavad Gita. Besides his own research
activities on various domains of
library and documentation science,
S.R.R. has significantly contributed to the
policy, planning, formulation and betterment
of scientific and technical tools
and programmes for the growth and development
of library science in India. He
is recognized and remembered as the
‘Father of Library Science in India’ and
is widely known throughout the rest of
the world for his fundamental work in
the field of library and documentation science.
In his honour, India celebrates
S.R.R.’s birthday as the ‘National
Library Day’.
S.R.R. was born on 12 August 1892 at
Shiyali (at present, Sirkazhi) in Nagapattinam
district (earlier Tanjavoor district)
of Tamil Nadu in southern India, to
Ramamrita Iyer and Sita Lakshmi.
S.R.R. lost his father at the age of only
six years. He did his early and primary
education at Sabhanayaka near Shiyali.
Then, he was admitted to S. M. Hindu
High School at Shiyali. During his high
school, S.R.R. came under the influence
of P. A. Subramanya Ayyar, a scholar of
S. R. Ranganathan
Source: http://www.dlaindia.in/about-dla/
patron/
Sri Rishi Aurobindo. He obtained admission
in the Madras Christian College and
passed B A with first class in 1913. He
was later admitted for M A in mathematics,
with Edward B. Ross as his teacher
at the Presidency College, Madras. After
completing, his postgraduation in 1916,
S.R.R. wanted to become a teacher in
mathematics1
.
S.R.R. was appointed by Subordinate
Education Service and employed as an
Assistant Lecturer in the Government
College in Mangalore and Coimbatore,
between 1917 and 1921. He joined as an
Assistant Professor of mathematics in
Presidency College, in 1921 and taught
higher algebra, trigonometry and statistics.
S.R.R. was also Secretary of the
Mathematics and Science faculties of the
Madras Teacher’s Guild.
The turning point in his career came in
January 1924, when S.R.R. left Presidency
College and took charge as the
Chief Librarian of Madras University,
without any formal training. There, he
organized the collection of books and
documents in a scientific way. Ranganathan
went to England in September 1924,
to study contemporary Western practices
in library. He contacted with library science
grammarian W. C. Berwick Sayers,
Chief Librarian of Croydon Public Library
and a reputed lecturer in the University
School of Librarianship, London.
S.R.R. gained extensive knowledge of
the literature on the subject of library science,
became personally acquainted with
methods of management of libraries in
Britain, got trained regarding the analytical
aspects and returned with enlightened
enthusiasm for a library movement in
India in July 1925. He was a pioneer of
the library movement in the Madras
Presidency, which at that time covered
almost two-thirds of South India. He introduced
open shelf system and provided
open access. This encouraged readers to
come to the department often.
Ranganathan started a school of library
science in 1929, under the auspices
of the Madras Library Association which
was later taken over by the Madras University.
His notable contribution was the
Five Laws of Library Science which he
enunciated in 1931. They are: (i) books
are for use; (ii) every reader must get his
book; (iii) every book must find its
reader; (iv) a reader’s time must be
saved; and (v) a library is a growing
organism. These fundamental laws of
library science are applicable to any
library service at all times
2
.
While at London, one evening, S.R.R.
saw the demonstration of working of a
Meccano set in a departmental store. He
observed that, by combining a dozen
slotted strips, wheels, nuts and bolts, a
number of toys could be made. Immediately,
an idea struck him. He thought the
elements constituting a subject could be
grouped into few facets, which may be
combined together with the help of nuts
and bolts for which he used a colon.
Hence, the scheme developed by him and
published in 1933 is called Colon (:)
Classification3
. This classification
scheme proved that the design and development
of a scheme is a lifetime activity.
The first edition of Classified
Catalogue Code was published in 1934.
It was used to understand the multidimensional
nature of subjects to apply
the concept of dimension to the universe
of subjects. S.R.R. defined dimension as
‘the degree of manifoldness of an aggregate
as fixed by the number of parameters
necessary, and sufficient, to identify
anyone of its members, i.e. to distinguish
it from all the others’
2
. Therefore, a line
has one dimension, i.e. length only; a
square or a rectangle has two dimensions,
i.e. length and breadth and a cube
has three dimensions, i.e. length, breadth
and height. Another major contribution
of Ranganathan was the improvement of
dynamic theory of classification, which
is based on certain normative principles,
published in Prolegomena to Library
Classification in 1937. The postulates,
canons and principles formulated by him
provide a scientific basis to the theory of
library classification. S.R.R. developed,
designed and formulated an independent
scheme and method for growing of new
subjects in the universe of knowledge.
He was a great creator of knowledge in
that subject fields. His ideas formed the
basis of much of the progress made in
the classification theory in England during
1950s.
S.R.R. visited USA in 1950 under the
Rockefeller Foundation and wrote the
HISTORICAL NOTES
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 108, NO. 11, 10 JUNE 2015 2111
book Classification and Communication.
A significant advancement then took
place in Great Britain. It was the formation
of the Classification Research Group
(CRG) in 1952, influenced and impacted
by the work of Ranganathan, with the
application of the principles of facet
analyses and synthesis for the development
of classification schemes for special
subjects. He postulated absolute
syntax for indexing language. According
to Neelameghan, ‘Absolute syntax is the
sequence in which the component ideas
of subjects falling in a subject-field arrange
themselves in the minds of majority
of normal intellectuals, for instance,
when they think and communicate about
the subject’
4
. S.R.R. evaluated the concept
of librametry, which is application
of statistics to library and information
science.
In 1957, during the centenary celebrations
of the Madras University, S.R.R.
donated his life’s savings of Rs 100,000
with which an endowment chair known
as Sarada Ranganathan Professionship in
Library Science was cretated. The students
of this stream have taken leading
part at all levels of activity – local, national
and international.
After having performed active library
service for 21 years, S.R.R. took voluntary
retirement in 1945 and engaged
himself in active research. In the meantime,
he received an invitation from S.
Radhakrishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras
Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi,
to organize, improve and modernize the
library techniques and services at BHU.
In 1947, S.R.R. moved to Delhi University
on an invitation from Sir Maurice
Gwyer. Under his guidance the University
began Bachelor of Library Sciences
and Master of Library Sciences courses
between 1947 and 1950. The Indian National
Scientific Documentation Centre,
Delhi was also founded in 1950. S.R.R.
was intimately involved in the founding
of the Documentation Committee of the
Indian Standards Institution, of which he
was the Chairman up to 1967. While in
Delhi, S.R.R. drafted a comprehensive
30-year plan for the development of
library and documentation information
system and services as a whole5
. During
this period, he also promoted the Madras
Public Library Act. S.R.R. then confined
himself to teaching and research activities
in library science. He introduced
many new ideas and innovations, for betterment
in this field. During his time
three subject journals, namely Annals of
Library Science, Library Bulletin, and
Granthalaya were founded. The Annals
contained research papers of the Delhi
Research Circle and soon gained international
acclaim and Ranganathan’s international
contacts began to expand. As an
academician and library scientist, S.R.R.
wrote many books and articles in prestigious
journals, worldwide.
The Government of India (GoI) bestowed
on him the Rao Sahib Award and
also awarded him the Padmashri in 1957
for his valuable contributions to library
science. Ranganathan received the D Lit
degree from Delhi University in 1948
and from Pittsburgh University, USA in
1964 for his unique services in the field
of library and documentation science.
Ranganathan was recognized and nominated
by GoI as the National Research
Professor of Library Science in 1965. He
was an adviser to the Planning Commission
and University Grants Commission,
Government of India.
S.R.R. then moved to Bengaluru and
in 1962 founded the Documentation
Research and Training Centre, with encouragement
from P. C. Mahalanobis
(Indian Statistical Institute). The basic
functions of this Centre are research and
training in library and information science.
He was Honorary Professor of the
Centre from 1962 to 1972. S.R.R. directed
the institution’s activities with
great efficiency and created an atmosphere
of good academic excellence1
. He
had close liaison with Donker-Duyvis,
the dynamic Secretary-General of the International
Federation for Information
and Documentation (FID). S.R.R. was
Chairman of the Classification Research
Group of (FID), from 1950 to 1962. A
large number of research papers and 12
research reports for FID were published
during this period. S.R.R. was the Honorary
Chairman of FID/CR4
. S.R.R.
passed away on 27 September 1972 after
leading a full life.
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