The Father of Library Science in India

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Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan was born on August 9, 1892 Shiyali, Madras and died on September 27, 1972 in Bangalore. He earned an MA in Mathematics, and taught at Madras University. In 1924 he was appointed as the librarian of Madras University, a post he held for twenty years. As a newly appointed librarian he travelled to London's School of Librarianship and toured over one hundred libraries in the U.K.

While in England, Dr. SR Ranganathan saw that the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) was the most popular system in use. His analytical mind quickly discovered its fundamental deficiency and its inability to express all the aspects of a specific subject of a document. He also thought that a classification system should allow for future subjects to be combined in unexpected or unplanned ways. In his mind DDC was neither prepared nor adequate to provide for the future situations.

Whether people are looking for resource books to help them with literature courses, electronic courses on Mobile Phones, interior decoration or language study they should be able to find a wide variety of appropriate reading material quickly and easily.

The DDC is not necessarily the quickest or easiest; to keep in mind he decided to devise a system of his own. Shortly afterward he began work on his classification scheme which he called the Colon Classification (CC).Ranaganathan started a Library Science School in Madras in 1929 where he taught both DDC and CC. Over his lifetime, he wrote over 2000 research papers, 60 books and founded and edited five periodical publications.

Ranganathan's chief technical contributions to library science were in classification and indexing theory. His Colon Classification (1933) introduced a system that iswidely used in research libraries around theworld and that has affected the evolution of such older systems as the Dewey Decimal Classification. Later he devised the technique of chain indexing for deriving subject-index entries.

His Five Laws of Library Science (1931) was widely accepted as a definitive statement of the ideal of library service. He also drafted plans for a national and several state library systems, founded and edited several journals, and was active in numerous professional associations.

Colon Classification is the system of library organization developed by Ranganathan in 1933. It is general rather than specific in nature, and it can create complex or new categories through the use of facets, or colons. In it, there are 108 main classes and 10 generalized classes (broadly divided between the humanities and sciences), which are represented by a mixed notation of Arabic numerals and Roman and Greek letters. Each main class comprises five fundamental facets, or groups: personality,

Ranganathan's main contribution to classification was the notion of these fundamental facets, or categories. Instead of schedules of numbers for each topic, Colon Classification uses series of short tables from which component numbers are chosen and linked by colons to form a whole. The book number is an integral part of the call number, a departure from Dewey or Library of Congress systems.

Each main class has its appropriate facets and focuses; e.g., literature has language and form. In addition, there are four floating tables that correspond to subdivisions -- e.g., form, geography, time, and language. Further expansion of the tables is allowed through colon addition or omission (if the subject cannot be expanded).

The collection of the University of Madras, India, was utilized in the creation of Colon Classification.

Digitised E-Books of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan by DLIST, The University of Arizona Campus Repository (University Libraries)

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His Life @ a Glance

He was educated at the Hindu High School in Shiyali, at Madras Christian College (where he took B.A. and M.A. degrees in mathematics in 1913 and 1916), and at Teachers College, Saidapet.

 In 1917 he joined the faculty of Government College, Mangalore.

 From 1920 to 1923 he subsequently taught at Government College, Coimbatore, and at Presidency College, University of Madras, in 1921-1923

 In 1924 he was appointed first librarian of the University of Madras, and in order to fit himself for the post he traveled to England to study at University College, London.

 From 1925 to 1944 he took up the job at Madras in earnest in 1925 and held it until 1944.

 From 1945 to 1954 he served as librarian and as professor of library science at Hindu University in Varanasi (Banaras), and from 1947 to 1954 he taught at the University of Delhi.

 From 1954 to 1957 he was engaged in research and writing in Zürich.

 He returned to India in the latter year and served as visiting professor at Vikram University, Ujjain, until 1959.

 In 1962 he founded and became head of the Documentation Research and Training Centre in Bangalore, with which he remained associated for the rest of his life, and in 1965 he was honoured by the Indian government with the title of national research professor in library science.Dr. S R Ranganathan is considered to be the father, the doyen, messiah of library and information profession in India.

Ranganathan’s Association with ILA

Ranganathan was closely associated with ILA right from its inception till 1954 ie, for about two decades. In fact, Mr K M Asadullah who convened the first All India Library Conference in Calcutta in the year 1933, requested Dr Ranganathan to be its president. But Ranganathan declined this offer as he was busy with the work of Madras University Library and Madras Library Association. However, he agreed to be one of the Conveners of the Conference.Ranganathan drafted the Constitution of the proposed Indian Library Association on behalf of the Madras Library Association. There were two more drafts-one from the Working Committee and one from the Simla Library Association. Hence a two member committee with Mr Ranganathan and Mr Montague of Simla was appointed to finalise the Constitution. This was adopted on 13 Sep 1933 and thus ILA was founded.Ranganathan enrolled himself as the first life member of ILA. He was President, ILA for nearly a decade upto 1953.When Ranganathan become the President of ILA he was not a member of the Executive Committee of the Association. It was an embarrassment for him when it was pointed out at the EC meeting held in Patna in 1946. Ranganathan then realised the need for amendment to the constitution as the President had no powers except to preside the general body meeting once in two years. Ranganathan got the constitution of the Association revised and adopted in 1949 at the Nagpur Conference.In the revised Constitution of 1949, the functions of the President were clearly laid-down. He was made the custodian of the constitution with full control over the affairs of the Association.PublicationsPapers for the Biennial Conference: A few months before the biennial conference, Ranganathan appointed an ad hocCommittee to select two or three subject groups in which papers should be solicited for the conference. Facets of each subject group were spelt-out well in advance. The ad hoc committee was also assigned the task of selection of papers, editing, standardization, publication, etc.Publication Series in English: A publication series in English was initiated in 1949. A sub-committee consisting of the President, Secretary and one Assistant Secretary was appointed for this purpose. Between 1949-53, seven titles were published under this series.Publication Series in Hindi: A series was also initiated in Hindi. Three of the books of Dr Ranganathan translated into Hindi by Mr M L Nagar were published.

In 1949 itself, it was decided to publish a research periodical in English; Another periodical giving a few papers of a slightly lower standard; and a periodical in Hindi.Finally it was resolved to make all there quarterlies issued simultaneously under one and the same cover under the titleAbgila.A (Annals) B (Bulletin) G (GrantJialaya) of ILA (Indian Library Association). Union CatalogueDr Ranganathan took-up the project of the compilation of the Union Catalogue of Learned Periodicals in South Asia and completed it successfully on behalf of the ILA. This has fetched a few thousand rupees to ILA.During 1992 the Association organised functions to celebrate the Birth Centenary of Dr. S.R. Rnaganathan,the doyan of library science and librarianship in India. The Filately Division of the Department of Post, Government of India, released a Postel Stamp in honour of Ranganathan at the Official Opening of IFLA General Conference on August 30,1992. The stamp release function was performed by Hon'ble Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Arjun Singh in the Siri Fort Auditorium. The Plennary Session of IFLA was also devoted to Dr S R Ranganathan.The XXXVIII All India Library Conference of the Indian Library Association held at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar was dedicated to Dr S R Ranganathan. A large number of Indian and foreign Library Science journals released special numbers on S R Ranganathan.

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