Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan

Biography

Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892-1972) was perhaps the greatest librarian of the 20th century. As an educator, librarian, and thinker, his contributions to the field of library science surpassed all others, and placed the country of India permanently on the world library stage. Ranganathan made two indispensable contributions to the library profession: the Five Laws of Library Science (1931) and Colon Classification (1933). Besides these two major contributions, Ranganathan also studied a wide variety of library topics, including the education of librarians, library administration and organization, reference services, and collection management, among others.

Ranganathan was born in Madras, India on August 9, 1892, and was first trained as a mathematician, becoming a lecturer of mathematics at the University of Madras . In 1924, he was offered a position of librarian at the University, on condition that he would travel to University College in London to study contemporary librarianship. During his studies in Great Britain, Ranganathan visited countless numbers of public and college libraries throughout the country, which helped him to focus his thoughts in the areas of classification, cataloguing, and library services.

Ranganathan saw libraries as essential elements in helping societies grow and thrive through the spreading of literacy, which made him focus his studies in the area of library services. He also saw libraries as places of service and intellectual dialogue, and he perceived library workers, as both scholars, who should continue to research and explore in the field, as well as teachers, sharing their knowledge with members of society. Ranganathan based his studies from his mathematical background and his beliefs in Hindu mysticism and the Analytico -Synthetic Method ( Pruiett ). In this method, he examined complex phenomena, broke his observations into small pieces, and then attempted to connect the pieces together in a systematic way.

Girja Kumar wrote in a biography of Ranganathan, "There had not been a day of the life of Ranganathan since 1924 when he did not breathe, think, talk, and even dream of librarianship and library science." (Kumar, 1992). Kumar also says, [Ranganathan] spent two decades as librarian of Madras University. Never did he take any vacations during this period, and during his entire twenty-year tenure as librarian at the University, he did not take even one day leave. He spent 13 hours every day for seven days a week on the premises of the library. (Kumar)

After leaving the University of Madras in 1945, Ranganathan served as a librarian and professor of library science at Hindu University in Varanasi , and he also taught at the University of Delhi from 1947 to 1954. During 1954 to 1957, he was engaged in research and writing in Zurich, Switzerland, and he returned to India in 1957 and served as visiting professor at Vikram University until 1959. In 1962, he founded and became head of the Documentation Research and Training Centre in Bangalore, and in 1965 he was honoured by the Indian government with the title of national research professor in library science.

Ranganathan wrote his 62 major books in the evenings, during his off hours from the University. Besides Colon Classification and the Five Laws of Library Science, other important works written by him, include Classified Catalogue Code (1934), Prolegomena to Library Classification (1937), Theory of the Library Catalogue (1938), Elements of Library Classification (1945), Classification and International Documentation (1948), Classification and Communication (1951) and Headings and Canons (1955), among many others. In addition to the large number of books and articles written by Ranganathan, he also created many professional and educational organizations, primarily in India, and he participated in library movements around the world.

When he died on September 27, 1972 in Bangalore, Mysore, the world lost one of the pioneers, maybe even the creator, of the library and information science field, and his writings will continue to be a significant impact and influence on the library world, especially in today's growing electronic environment.