History of Dr S.R. Ranganatan
(Father of Library and Information Science Movement in India)
Dr. S. R. Ranganathan - a tribute on the Librarian's Day
movement in India, was born onAugust 12th 1892 to Ramamrita at Shiyali in
The Tanjur district of Madras State, in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern
India (British-ruled India) Ramamrita Ayyar died (on 13 January 1898)
rather suddenly after a bout of illness at the age of 30, when Ranganathan
was only six years old. Ranganathan's mother survived this loss for nearly
55 years and died at Delhi due to a fire accident at the home in January 1953.
Ranganathan married when he was fifteen years old in 1907. Rukmini was
his wife's name. She was very devoted to Ranganathan and an able house keeper.
But she died in an accident on 13 November 1928 at the Parthasarathy Koil Tank,
Triplicane, Madras where she had gone for a bath. The couple had no children.
Ranganathan married again in December 1929 to Sarada; she was also devoted
to Ranganathan and helped him to work ceaselessly for the cause of the library
profession. She even persuaded him to donate large sums of money for the
Chair of Library Science in Madras University and to the Endowment.
She died at the age of 78 years on 30 July 1985 in Bangalore.
His most notable contributions to the field of Library and Information
His most notable contributions to the field of Library and Information
Science, particularly his five laws of library science and the development of
the first major analytico-synthetic classification system, the Colon Classification.
He is considered to be the father of library science, documentation, and
information science in India and is widely known throughout the rest of the
world for his fundamental thinking in the field. His birthday is observed every
year as the National Library Day in India. He was a university librarian and
professor of library science at Benares Hindu University (1945–47) and professor
of library science at the University of Delhi (1947–55). The last appointment made
him director of the first Indian school of librarianship to offer higher degrees.
He was president of the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953. In 1957
he was elected as a honorary member of the International Federation for
Information and Documentation and was made a vice president for life of
the Library Association of Great Britain.
Early life and education
Ranganathan's education was initiated on Vijayadasami day in October,
Ranganathan's education was initiated on Vijayadasami day in October,
1897 withAksharabyasam at Ubhayavedanthapuram near Shiyali. After this,
Ranganathan was admitted to a school in Shiyali, and was handed to the care
of Subba Ayyar, a brother of his maternal grandfather and a primary school teacher.
During his school days, Ranganathan came under the influence of two of his
teachers who shaped his mind -R. Antharama Ayyar and Thiruvenkatachariar,
the Sanskrit teacher. From them Ranganathan learnt about the life teachings
of nayanars (Shaivaite Bhaktas) and Alwars (Vaishnavaite Bhaktas).
Depth of scholarship and essence of life were ingrained in Ranganathan
which kept in good stead in his later life to make decisionsat crucial junctures.
Ranganathan attended the S.M. Hindu High School at Shiyali and passed
Ranganathan attended the S.M. Hindu High School at Shiyali and passed
Matriculation examination in 1908/1909. Ranganathan passed the examination
in First Class, in spite of sickness like anaemia, piles, and stammering. In his
high school career he came under the influence of P.A. Subramanya Ayyar, a
scholar on Sri Aurobindo. Ranganathan joined the junior intermediate class
at the Madras Christian College in March 1909. Even in those days, there were
paucity of college seats. Ranganathan was picked up for his excellent marks in
all the subjects and the principal. Prof. Skinner spotted him in a crowd of students
and admitted him into the course. Ranganathan passed B.A. with a first class in
March/April 1913. In June, same year, he joined for the M.A. course in Mathematics
with Professor Edward B. Ross as his teacher. Being a favourite student of Prof. Ross,
Ranganathan had an excellent Guru-Shishya relationship.
Ranganathan began his professional life as a mathematician, and he was
Ranganathan began his professional life as a mathematician, and he was
successively a member of the mathematics faculties at universities in Mangalore,
Coimbatore and Madras. As a mathematics professor, he published a handful of
papers, mostly on the history of mathematics. His career as an educator was
somewhat hindered by a handicap of stammering.
In 1923, the University of Madras created the post of University
In 1923, the University of Madras created the post of University
Librarian to oversee their poorly organized collection. Among the 900
applicants for the position, none had any formal training in librarianship,
and Ranganathan's' handful of papers satisfied the search committee's
requirement that the candidate should have a research background. His
sole knowledge of librarianship came from an Encyclopædia Britannica
article he read days before the interview.
Ranganathan was initially reluctant to pursue the position (he had
Ranganathan was initially reluctant to pursue the position (he had
forgotten about his application by the time he was called for an interview there).
To his own surprise, he received the appointment and accepted the position in
January 1924.
Ranganathan found the solitude of the position was intolerable.
Ranganathan found the solitude of the position was intolerable.
After a matter of weeks, complaining of total boredom, he went back to the
university administration to beg for his teaching position back. A deal was
struck that Ranganthan would travel to London to study contemporary Western
practices in librarianship, and that, if he returned and still rejected librarianship
as a career, the mathematics lectureship would be his again.
Ranganathan travelled to University College London, which at that time
Ranganathan travelled to University College London, which at that time
housed the only graduate degree program in library science in Britain. At University
College, he earned marks only slightly above average, but his mathematical mind
latched onto the problem of classification, a subject typically taught by rote in
library programs of the time. As an outsider, he focused on what he perceived
to be flaws with the popular decimal classification, and began to explore new
possibilities on his own.
He began drafting the system that was ultimately to become the Colon
He began drafting the system that was ultimately to become the Colon
Classification while in England, and refined it as he returned home, even going
so far as to reorder the ship's library on the voyage back to India. He initially got
the idea for the system from seeing a set of Meccano in a toy store in London.
Ranganathan returned with great interest for libraries and librarianship and a
vision of its importance for the Indian nation. He returned to and held the position
of University Librarian at the University of Madras for twenty years. During that
time, he helped to found the Madras Library Association in 1928, and lobbied
actively for the establishment of free public libraries throughout India and for the
creation of a comprehensive national library.
Ranganathan was considered by many to be a workaholic. During his two
Ranganathan was considered by many to be a workaholic. During his two
decades in Madras, he consistently worked 13-hour days, seven days a week,
without taking a vacation for the entire time. Although he married in November
1928, he returned to work the afternoon following the marriage ceremony. A few
years later, he and his wife Sarada had a son. The couple remained married until
Ranganathan's death.
The first few years of Ranganathan's tenure at Madras were years of
The first few years of Ranganathan's tenure at Madras were years of
deliberation and analysis as he addressed the problems of library administration
and classification. It was during this period that he produced what have come
to be known as his two greatest legacies: his five laws of library science (1931)
and the colon classification system (1933).
Regarding the political climate at the time, Ranganathan took his position
Regarding the political climate at the time, Ranganathan took his position
at the University of Madras in 1924. Gandhi had been imprisoned in 1922 and
was released around the time that Ranganathan was taking that job. Ranganathan
sought to institute massive changes to the library system and to write about such
things as open access and education for all which essentially had the potential
to enable the masses and encourage civil discourse. Although there's no evidence
that Ranganthan did any of this for political reasons, his changes to the library
had the result of educating more people, making information available to all,
and even aiding women and minorities in the information-seeking process.
After two decades of serving as librarian at Madras – a post he had intended
After two decades of serving as librarian at Madras – a post he had intended
to keep until his retirement, Ranganathan retired from his position after conflicts
with a new university vice-chancellor became intolerable. At the age of 54,
he submitted his resignation and, after a brief bout with depression, accepted
a professorship in library science at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, his
last formal academic position, in August 1945. There, he catalogued the
university's collection; by the time he left four years later, he had classified
over 100,000 items personally.
In spite of the good salary he earned, he adopted a Gandhi-like simplicity
In spite of the good salary he earned, he adopted a Gandhi-like simplicity
in diet and dress. He ate only lightly, shunned coffee and tea, and wore plain
homespun garments. He usually walked barefoot to the library and worked
there barefoot, saying that the library was his home, and no one wears shoes
in his own home. As for his real home, it was sparsely furnished and lacked
electricity, although he could have easily afforded these amenities.
The money he saved through years of frugal living, he gave away twice.
In 1925 to endow a mathematics fellowship at Madras Christian College
in honour of his mathematics professor, Edward B.Ross, and In 1956 to
endow the Sarada Ranganathan chair of library science at the University of Madras.
Ranganathan headed the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953,
Ranganathan headed the Indian Library Association from 1944 to 1953,
but was never a particularly adept administrator, and left amid controversy
when the Delhi Public Library chose to use the Dewey Decimal Classification
system instead of his own Colon Classification. He held an honorary professorship
at Delhi University from 1949 to 1955 and helped build that institution's library
science programs with S. Dasgupta, a former student of his. In 1951,
Ranganathan released an album on Folkways Records entitled, Readings
from the Ramayana: In Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita.
Ranganathan briefly moved to Zurich, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1957,
Ranganathan briefly moved to Zurich, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1957,
when his son married a European girl; the unorthodox relationship did not sit
well with Ranganathan, although his time in Zurich allowed him to expand
his contacts within the European library community, where he gained a
significant following. However, he soon returned to India and settled in
the city of Bangalore, where he would spend the rest of his life. While
in Zurich, though, he endowed a professorship at Madras University in
honour of his wife of thirty years, largely as an ironic gesture in retaliation
for the persecution he suffered for many years at the hands of that university's
administration.
Ranganathan's final major achievement was the establishment of the
Ranganathan's final major achievement was the establishment of the
Documentation Research and Training Centre as a department and research
centre in the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore in 1962, where he served
as honorary director for five years. In 1965, the Indian government honoured
him for his contributions to the field with a rare title of "National Research
Professor."
In the final years of his life, Ranganathan finally succumbed to ill
In the final years of his life, Ranganathan finally succumbed to ill
health, and was largely confined to his bed. On September 27, 1972, he
died of complications from bronchitis.
Upon the centenary of his birth in 1992, several biographical volumes
Upon the centenary of his birth in 1992, several biographical volumes
and collections of essays on Ranganathan's influence were published in his
honour. Ranganathan's autobiography, published serially during his life, is titled
“A Librarian Looks Back”.
His Contribution
1. Five Laws of Library science
These were published in 1931. The five laws are the following simple
His Contribution
1. Five Laws of Library science
These were published in 1931. The five laws are the following simple
statements:
Books Are For Use,
Every Reader His Book,
Every Book Its Reader,
Save The Time Of The Reader,
Library Is A Growing Organism
2. Colon Classification
Ranganathan published his first major work on his new classification
Books Are For Use,
Every Reader His Book,
Every Book Its Reader,
Save The Time Of The Reader,
Library Is A Growing Organism
2. Colon Classification
Ranganathan published his first major work on his new classification
system ,the Colon Classification. Its basic principles, however, require the
analysis of a subject to determine its various aspects, called facets, and the
synthesis of a class number from the numbers assigned in published schedules
to different facets. Thus, Colon Classification is known as an analytico
-synthetic classification system. Ranganathan was the first to fully explicate
facet theory, and his work has had a major impact on modern classification
schemes.
3. Classified Catalogue Code
In 1934 Ranganathan published another important work, the Classified
3. Classified Catalogue Code
In 1934 Ranganathan published another important work, the Classified
Catalogue Code. He maintained, however, that a catalogue should consist
of two components.
One part should be classified by subject, reflecting the library's classification
One part should be classified by subject, reflecting the library's classification
system, with class number entries. The other should be a dictionary catalogue,
including author, title, series, and similar identifiers, as well as alphabetized
subject entries. The function of a catalogue is to itemize works so they
can be found by author, title, series, and so forth. It must also allow readers
to review the selection of works on a given subject.
4. Chain Index
To determine subject entries for the dictionary catalogue, He devised an
4. Chain Index
To determine subject entries for the dictionary catalogue, He devised an
ingeniously Simple method called chain indexing. This method simply uses
each facet of a subject, together with its immediately preceding facets, as
an index entry. Thus, all important aspects of the subject, from the most
general to the most specific, are automatically covered. Chain indexing
can be adapted to other classification systems as well.
Honours
Ranganathan's contributions were acknowledged 1964, he was named
Honours
Ranganathan's contributions were acknowledged 1964, he was named
honorary president of the Second International Conference on Classification
Research, Held in Elsinore, Denmark.
He also received a number of other high honours.
· In 1935 and 1957, the Indian government bestowed on him the
He also received a number of other high honours.
· In 1935 and 1957, the Indian government bestowed on him the
honorific title Rao Sahib and the public service award Padmashri respectively.
· In 1948, he received an honorary doctorate of literature from the
· In 1948, he received an honorary doctorate of literature from the
University of Delhi.
· In 1964, he received the same degree from the University of
· In 1964, he received the same degree from the University of
Pittsburgh.
· In 1965, he was made a national research professor by the Indian
· In 1965, he was made a national research professor by the Indian
government, and in 1970, he received the Margaret Mann Citation in
Cataloguing and Classification of the American Library Association (ALA).
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