The' father of Indian libraries' remembered on his 128th birth anniversary

Sirkazhi Ramamrutham Ranganathan, or popularly SR Ranganathan, (1892-1972), a mathematician who gave the five laws of library science and a method of classifying books known as ' Colon classification ' is known as the father of library science, information science and documentation in India. His birthday on August 12 is observed every year as the 'National Librarian's Day' in India.

Born in a normal Tamil Iyer family, Ranganathan lost his father at an early age of six and moved to his maternal uncle's home to pursue his education, which he was good at. After the initial phase of education, he moved to Madras in 1909, where 15 years later, his role to establish the library movement took roots.

In 1924, as soon as he was appointed as the librarian of Madras University, he proceeded to University College, London to undergo training on library management, as such a course was lacking in India which did not have a library infrastructure to begin with. The authorities at the College, which was the only one of its kind offering a graduate course in library science made arrangements for him to study and teach the course, as per his convenience.

Ranganathan proved through his method of classification of books that it could be superior to the existing 'Dewey Decimal Classification' which was more of an exercise in ' intellectual laziness' as he termed it. It was accepted widely all over.

In his entire career he was known for being a librarian, author, academic and a mathematician. After his tenure in Madras, he was employed at Banaras Hindu University and the University of Delhi. He held many important posts in the sector which remembers him till date.