DR,S,R,RANGANATHAN

Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, 1892 to 1972 was  the Indian librarian and educator who is considered the father of library science in India and whose contributions had worldwide influence. Shiyali is the old name of Sirkazhi.

Ranganathan was educated at the Hindu High School in Shiyali, at Madras Christian College (where he took B.A. and M.A. degrees in mathematics  and at Teachers College, Saidapet.  He joined the faculty of Government College, Mangalore and later  taught at Government College, Coimbatore and at Presidency College,  Madras.

In 1924 he was appointed first librarian of the University of Madras, and in order to fit himself for the post he went  to England to study at University College, London. He took up the job at Madras in earnest in 1925 and held it until 1944. From 1945 to 1947 he served as librarian and as professor of library science at Hindu University in Vārānasi  and from 1947 to 1954 he taught at the University of Delhi. During 1954–57 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. 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.

Ranganathan’s chief technical contributions to library science were in classification and indexing theory. His Colon Classification (1933) introduced a system that is widely used in research libraries around the world and that has affected the evolution of such older systems as the Dewey Decimal Classification.

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.”

  P.P.Ramachandran.

13—08--2016