short communication

ARE WE STILL INSTITUTION ORIE.NTED?

B B BannurG M PurandareLibrary and Technical Information ServicesHindustan Antibiotics Ltd.Pimpri, Poona • 18

What is science? "Science" is definedby Encyclopaedia Britannica "Science may bedefined as ordered knowledge of natural pheno-mena and of the relations between them".

The point we would like to discuss iswhether the present concepts of library sci-ence satisfy the general concepts of science.

Unfortunately library profession isnamed in such a ·way that it mainly relates tothe institution. It is time to re-think and re-name our profession and functions.

If we want to achieve for library sciencea place similar to that of other applied sci-ences viz. medicine and engineering we haveto re-examine our basic attitudes.

We fully agree with Kesavan's (1) edi.--torial comments" Librarianship is as much aprofession as medicine, engineering, law andteaching. .. It must be remembered thatmedicine is a plenary discipline giving rise tosurgeons, physicians, radiologists, with spe-cialisations in Gynaecology, Ophthalmology,Paediatry and the like".

If we agree with the fact that librarian-ship is as much a profession as medicine,engineering and law, we have to comparelibrary science with medical science andengineering. When we do so, we find thatother sciences viz, Medical Science, engineer-ing etc. deal with natural phenomena whereaslibrary science deals with working of a parti-cular institution. The science of medicine is•.•riented mainly towards the study of human

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body, disease and cure but not th,e study ofhospitals. Similarly "law" is orlente~ towardsthe study of laws and their interpr et.ations butnot the study of different courts.

But unfortunately library science andlibrarianship, at least as we find it today, areoriented mainly towards the funct ions oflibrary institution.

Giuliano (2) has drawn an interestinganalogy "Suppose that many years ago thefield that we now know as medicine was de-veloped somewhat differently. There came tobe certain places where people came to becured; they were known as hospitals, andthose people who worked in them were knownas hospitalitarians. It became apparent thatrunning a hospital required professionaltraining, and schools of Hospitalitarianshipwere developed. T!1ecurricula of theseschools naturally included all those skills thatwerf! practiced in a hospital, including hospitaladministration, handling patient data, !\lurgeryand what is now known as medicine. Theprofession was defined in terms of the needsof the hospital institution; not in terms ofhealth or curing people ".

Today library science and librarianshipare in the same stage as Hospitalitarianshipwas then. Library science is defined interms of activities carried out within the fourwalls of the library. The five laws of libraryscience (Ranganathan) and other principlesextended by many others are also centeredaround the activities carried out in the libraryins t itut ion.

Today librarv s eience ooerip r ises of allthe activitles or rne library. Many techniquesessential to the management library arejust techniques. These techniques can becompared with the techniques used in hospitals.For such techniques, there are special train-

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ing courses which train technicians useful forrunning the hospitals viz. nurse, administra-tor, dieticians and pharmacists, etc. Butthey are not doctors. Similarly many techni-cians working in libraries are not actuallylibrarians but they are only well versed incataloguing, accessioning, storing, issuingand managing books and periodicals etc. Butwe think librarians are really those actuallyresponsible for information transfer i,e. whodirectly answer to the users of information.

There are scientists from many fieldswho can do research in information transfer.They may not be working or professionallytrained librarians. This state also exists inmedicine. The microbiologists, biochemists,even physicists are working in the field ofmedical research and making fundamentalcontributions. But they are not professionaldoctors able to cure people. It is the doctorswho cure people. Similarly, computer techno-logists, mathematicians can do research in thefield of information transfer, but they cannotbe professionals to deal with the user.

When a doctor can practice successfullywithout much training in hospital adm.inistra-tion and when a lawyer can practice withoutthe direct training of the procedure followedin law-courts, why not a librarian be success-ful only with the training in knowledge transferand use and without the detail study of otherlibrary act iv it ie s?

No doubt m.any of the librarians have toshoulder adm.inistrative responsibilities. Butthat does not m.ean that adm.inistration alsobecom.es a part of library science, There arem.any doctors who are adm.inistrative head ofhospitals.

We m.ay conclude that, the pre sent stateof librarianship is in the sam.e state as thatof Hospitalitarianship was then. Profession

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of librarianship is defined by the needs of thelibrary institution. The students of librarian-ship spend m.uch of their tim.e in studyinginstitutional library procedures rather thanthe fundam.entals of how knowledge is trans-ferred.

As som.e of doctors work on production ofm.edicines in industries, som.e librarians alsowork in publishing National and InternationalAbstracting Journals. Even though they aretrained librarians, they are not practicinglibrarians. In bigger hospitals som.e doctorsare working only as technicians. Sim.ilarlysom.e librarians in bigger libraries are work-ing as only technicians viz , cataloguers,cla s eifi er s , translators etc.

In our opinion, librarian is the one whodeals with inform.ation transfer. At presenthe is called by m.any nam.es viz. Librarian,Docum.entalist, Inform.ation Scientist, Infor-rnat ion Officer etc. who are all carrying outthe sam.e job for different types of users.Other persons working ill this field are eithertechnicians or research scientists or takingpart in production of inform.ation. So let ourdesignation which has been nam.ed in term.srelating to the library institution be changedto one which related to inform.ation transfer.

In the light of the above, we feel it istime to re-enunciate the content of libraryscience and if possible to r e c narrie it.

REFERENCES

[1] KESAVAN, B S: Editorial. Ann. Lib.Sci, Doc. 1968, 15(2).

[2] GIULIANO, V E: Relationship of infor-m.ation Science to librarianship -Problem.s and scientific training.Am.er. Doc. 1969, 20(4), 344-45.

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SHRIIYYANKI VENKATA RAMANAYYAANDTHE LIBRARY MOVEMENT IN INDIA: APERSONAL TRIBUTE

R SatyanarayanaInadoc. New Delhi-IZ

It is given only to a few to lead a full andworthy life. Sri Iyyanki Venkata Ramanayya isone such person. By conferring on him thehonour of Padmashri. the Govt. of India hasonce aga.in demonstrated its conviction that itvalues the services of people engaged in thespread of knowledge; the librarians and library

.workers.

In the past. two professional librarians;Dr. S. R. Ranganathan and Shr i B. S. Kesavanhad the distinction of being honoured by thegovernment with this award. Though. third inthe series. it may be said without fear of con-tradiction. that Shri Venkata Ramanayya wasthe first amongst these three to dedicate hislife to the cause of Libraries and Librarvl.fClvement in India. It may not be proper tocall Shri Venkata Ramanayya a librarian. forhe never worked as one in the technical senseof the word. Rather. he can be best describedas a founder of thousands of public librariesthroughout the length and breadth of Andhradesaas well as the father of Library Movement inIndia.

Shri Venkata Ramanayya was born on the24th of July 1890 in a middle class family ofAyyanki village in Krishna District of AndhraPradesh. He had his early schooling in hisown village and thereafter. shifted to Masuli-patanam, which was considered to be thecultural centre of Andhra in those days, forfurther education.

Those were the days of intense NationalMovement. The Extremist Trio Lal , Bal andPal were inspiring and instigating the youngergeneration for 'Purna Swaraj'. In 1907. BepinChandra Pal was touring Andhra Pradeshaddressing many public meetings appealing thepeople to take part in the National Movementand fight for freedom. He started his trip withMasul ipatam. After attending the publiclecture of Mr Pal Shri Venkata Ramanayyadecided once for all that he would jump into theFreedom Movement and dedicate his life to thenoble cause. The British type of education didnot appeal to him. He discontinued his studiesand began to take active part in pol itical

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matters. He carne into close contact withleaders like Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya.K. Hanumantha Rao , M. Krishna Rao andother stalwarts of Andhr a, The enl ighteneddiscussions he had with them made him read alot on politics and literature. His sharpintellect could easily pick out the essentialsfrom what he read. He founded a monthlyliterary journal entitled ~-Andhra Bha rat i" inthe year 1910 and edited it with distinction.This journal published important articles bothon cul tural and literary aspects and played aprominent role in rousing the political con-c iousne ss and nationalist feelings in the people.Later on Shri Venkata Ramanayya madeVijayawada the centre of his activities. Hethought that in a country like India whereilliteracy is rampant, political movementssuch as the Freedom Movement could not bespread effectively unless the masses wereeducated. For this he believed. l ib r ar iesare the only suitable media. This convictioninspired him to divert his energies for themobilization of resources for the establishmentof Public Libraries. He toured from villageto village to spread the message of librarymovement and met with success wherever hewent.

He was the main spirit behind the found-ing of the Andhra Des a Library Association inthe year 1914. Speaking of the association DrS. R. Ranganathan observes" on April 1914. aconference of about 200 delegates was held inVijayawada. Chilakamarti Lakshminarar-simham Pantulu, the 'Blind Bard of AndhraDesa presided. His address amounted to aSuprabhatam to wake up the library idea. Thewords with which he sang this nSuprabhatam"are worth quoting"The Sun's light brightens everything;So shall knowledge dispell darkness and

brighten every life.Air gives life to all and is freely accessible;So shall knowledge be within the reach of all

Breathing life, vigour into them,Clear water quenches the thirst of all.So shall knowledge satisfy the curiosity of the

curious and the hunger of the hungry forit" •

The first President of the Association wasMocharla Ramachandra Rao and the firstsecretaries were Iyyanki Venkata Rarnanayyaand N. Krishna Rao, The Association'sactivities were planned and directed by thelibrary enthusiasts and not by library profes-

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sion; for there was then no l ib r a r y pforession.They were unequalled in their public ity work.They made library pi Ig r ima gc s f r orn village tovillage on foot, on bicycles and on boats"[2).As its first secretary V enkata Rarnanayyaworked cea sele s sly. He collected enough fundsand founded the library journal entitled'Granthalaya Sa r va s va rnu ". Apart f'r orn histhought provoking editorials, he regularlycontributed to this periodical articles onvarious aspects of library rnariag erne nt andadministraion. This journal is being continuedeven today.

Shri Venkata Ramanayya' s abidinginterest in the library movement was not con-fined to Andhra alone. It was with his laboursthat the first 'All India Public Library Con-ference' was held at Madras on 14.11.1919under the aegis of the Andhra Desa GranthalayaSangham. This conference was patronised byLord Willingdon (the then Governor of Madras)and was presided over by J. S. Kuda l ka r , Asan outcome of this conference, the 'All IndiaPublic Library Association' carne into being [3).Shri Venkata Ramanayya served as its secre-tary for nearly 15 years and tirelessly workedfor the spread of library movement in India. Itwas with his initiative that the first All IndiaVillage Libraries Conference as also the firstSouth Indian Libraries Conference were con-ducted. The second named conference suc-ceeded in carrying the message of librarymovement to other states in South India.Venkata Ramanayya was mainly responsiblefor the founding of the 'Indian Library Journal'in the capacity of an editor.

In the propagation of library movementShri Venkata Ramanayya travelled far into thenorth. In a congratulatory message sent tothe comITlemoration volume, brought out on theoc c a s ion of his Sixtieth Birthday in 1950,Shri Sarit Ram Bhatia (Editor of 'IndianLibrarian') observes "it is not an exaggerationto state that Shri Iyyanki is known to the peopleof Punjab as the originator and leader of thelibrary movement in this part of the countrv.He travelled all the way from Bezawada to .Lahore during the christmas of 1929 to assistin the organisation of the 'All India PublicLibrary Conference' presided over by the(Late) Dr P. C. Ray. Much of the credit forthe success of that conference is due to thedevoted work of Shri Iyyanki. We, the peopleof Punjab will remain grateful to him for that.We do not hesitate to recognise Shri Iyyanki's

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role in the spread of library rriov e rric nt in thecountry. I for one, always notice in him asincere feeling for libraries. No body couldever forget his services as the secretary ofthe All India Library Association. I pray Godthat there be many Ra.rna nav v a s in everystate" [1).

Venkata Ramanayya's innate interestmade him to take part in every welfaremovement. He took absorbing interest inNaturopathy and contributed in no smallmeasure to its de ve Io prn cn t. He servednearly 25 years as the secretary of the 'AllIndia Prakriti Dharma Sangh' and ran specialcamps for over ten years to demonstrate thepotentialities of Naturopathy. He was thes e c r et a r y of the Andhra Branch of the Theoso-phical Society for over a decade. He pa r-t ic i-pated in the Scout movement and was theCommissioner for the Andhra area. He raiseda very highly disciplined volunteer corps forthe Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee ofwhich he was a member for three years. Inrecognition of his services he was elected asthe Municipal Councillor for VijayawadaMuncipality for two terms. He not onlyfounded and edited periodicals such as 'Andh r aBharati', 'Granthalaya Sa r vas varnu! , 'IndianLibrary Journal', 'Indian Naturopath' but alsowrote extensively on matters of vital publicinterest both in English and Telugu. All hiswritings are expected 1I) to be published inabout eleven volumes of which a few havealready seen the light of the day.

As a per son Shri Venkata Ramanayyapossesses an arresting personality, genialtemperment, amiable manners and above allaccommodative spirit. I would like to end thistribute by refering to an incident which tookplace between him and Dr S. R. Ranganathan.In 1931, the Madras Library Association pub-lished its second book, the 'Five laws ofLibrary Science' by Dr S. R. Ranganathan. Itcontained some critical re rna r k s regarding thelibrary set up in Andhra. This criticismcaused a great resentment in the minds oflibrary workers of Andhra in general and in theminds of the office bearers of the Andhra DesaLibrary Association in particular. Practicallyevery conference organised by the Associationpassed resolutions protesting against the criti,"ca l remarks contained in the 'Five Laws ofLibrary Science' and calling for their with-drawal from the book [2). Dr. S. R. Rarig a na ,than thought Shri Venkata Ratnanayya was

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behind all this. At a later date when ShriVenkata Ramanayya called on Dr S. R. Ranga .nathan at the latter's residence evidently witha view to make peace. Dr. Ranganathan didnot take kindly to him and said to him "I amdead to you and you are dead to me. You maygo". Recalling this incident Dr. Ranganathanwrites " ... display of emotion and bitternesscannot go further! ... Iyyanki was essentiallya good man. continued his efforts to close upthe breach between 2 and the Andhra DesaLibrary Association. The persistance oflyyanki in this matter brougbt repentence inthe mind of 2 for the rude treatment given byhim to Iyyanki. Early in 1942, 2 received arequest for a contribution to the proposedIyyanki Venkata Rarnanayya corrrmerno r at ionvolume, He organised a symoposiuITl of thefollowing eleven paper s by the mernbe r s of thestaff of the Madras University Library and twoof the old students of its Library School:-

I. Introduction by 2;

2. India and library classification byC Sundaram. Reference Librarian;

3. India and library cataloguing byK M Si va r arn an , Classifier;

4. India and library reference serviceby S Ram abh ad r an , ReferenceAssistant;

5. India and library users byA Raj abhup at i, Head of the Ci r cul a ,tion Section;

6. India and school libraries byS Parthasarathy. Old student;

Vr)) 1 ') No .~ Sept 1 ')71.

7. India and library binding byM S. Sundaresan. Head of theMaintenance Section;

8. India and book production byH C Cyrus. Accession Librarian;

9. India and librarianship. viewed byan outsider by B J Palmer, Informalstudent;

10. How to advance the cause of Indianl ib r a r ie s by R S Parkhi, Old student;and

11. India and its distinctive contributionto librarianship by 2.

I quoted the above incident at length onlyto indicate the high e st e ern with whichShri Iyyanki Venkata Ramanayya was' held byDr S. R. Rang anat han , the doyen of libraryscience in India.

REFERENCES

[1] VENKAT ARAMANAYY A. I: Granthalayajyothi, a collection of essays, ed. byV. Ve nkarapp ayy a. Vijayawada.Saraswati Samrajyam, 1967.

[2] RANGANATHAN, S R: A librarian look.back:chapter BK.Herald of Lib Sc 9(3)July 1970. pp.I77-89.

(3] DUTT. N M: Baroda and its libraries.Baroda. The Central Library, 1928.p.56.

SHORTCOMMUNICATION

SYMPOSIUMOF EDITORS OF DOCUMENTA-TION, LIDRARY SCIENCE ANDARCHIVESJOURNALS

Parb, Unesco House, 16-18 May 1972

- A report by B. Guha

The aim of the Symposium was to bringtogether the editors of the main journals in thefield of documentation, library science, and

.archives to enable them to discuss ways' andmeans of reaching closer co-operation and co-ordination. The meeting provided a good opporopportunity for an exchange of views and expe-rience, for making suggestions, and for impro-ving the literature of documentstion, librariesand archives. A background paper by Dr. H.Cob lans, editor of the Journal of Documenta-tion, prepared and circulated in advance, ser-ved as a basis for the discussions.

Sixty-three editors representing someof the well known periodicals, both primaryand secondary, f rorn tm rtyone countries atten-ded the three-day Symposiurn. From Indiaonly our own publication, viz., the Annals ofLibrary Sc ience &: Documentatton was repre-sented at the meeting. At the outset, the dele-gates elected .unanilnously as Chairman,Madame Honore' (Bulletin de l'AssociationBibliotheques de France) and as RapporteurMr E Dudley (Library A8IIociatio~ Record).The Unesco Secretariat was represented byMr Mikhailov, Director of DBA, Dr P Lazar,Chief of the Division for the Promotion of Re-search and International Co-operation in Docu-lIlentation of the DBA, and Mrs I BetteInbourRof the Infonnation and Publication Section ofthe DBA.

The discussions were mainly focussed onthe follOwing themes:

I. Survey of periodical publishing indocumentation, librarianship and archiyes.

2. Improyement of editing and publishingin these fields, by (a) improving quality ofcontents of articles, news and information,etc., (b) achieving greater unifor=ity in pre-sentation (bibliographical references, trans-lite ration, authors' abstracts, etc.), (c) re-ducing delay in publication of manuscripts, (d)improving distribution, etc.

3. Irnprovernent of coverage of profes-alonal literature in abstracting and indexing

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journals, and better relations between profes-sional journals and abstracting and indexingjournals.

4. Promotion of international co-opera--tion botween editors of journals: (a) need forincreased contacts between editors, assistanceto editors of journals in developing countries(b) publication in national journals of morearticles by foreign authors (c) organization ofstudy trips, bilateral fellowships for editors,etc. (d) need for some method of maintainingpe zmanent consultation between editors (e. g.creation of committee or sections in the inte-rested non-governmental organizations or ajoint committee of editors).

The coverage of the 'big four' abstractingjournals in the field viz. Library and Infor-mation Science Abstracts, ReferativniiZhurnal (Sec. Informatics), InformationScience Abatracts, and the Library Literaturewas discuaaed and the question posed "why notone"? It was reported that the FID hoped topublish a revision of its list of journals in thefield in 1973 or 1974. On the theme of Imp rove-ment of editing and better presentation a num-ber of questions were discussed. They were onproviaion of bibliographical strip. abbreviationof titles, Inte:m.a.tionalStandard Serial Number,contents page, abstraets, volume indexes, etc.The need for an infounative booklet based uponthe essential cent eat of the various relevantISO standards was felt. Unesco could help inthis matter. A number of papers, including apaper published earlier in the Annals (The con-tents page of a scientific periodical, vot. no. 18June 1972. 68-78) which were considered rele-

• vant were circulated amongst the participants.

..

'At its final seasion, the Symposiumadopted the following recommendations:

I. editors should quote always the origi-nal source of any article republished or trans-Iat ed, noting title changes, within copyrightrequirements,

2. editors be urged to accept the abbre-viations of titles and ISSN to be formulated byISDS in collaboration with ISO and with thecompetent national bodies;

3. national meetin.s of edito..rs shouldbe organizedJ

4. a practical guide to the various rele-vant ISO standards should be published,

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5. Unesco should undertake a study ofthe presentation of periodicals in the field; astatistical study of the primary literature inthe field and a comparative study of the majorabstracting and indexing services; a feaSibilitystudy of an indexing or abstracting networkbased upon a survey of the world's primaryliterature in the field:

6. countries without an indexing orabstracting service should be encouraged byUnesco to set up such services to cover theirnational literature in the fierd: at least an

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indexing service should be set up. Such ser-vices could be either national or regional;

7. taking into account the needs of deve-loping countries, Unesco should encourage theextension of the practice of publishing in pri-mary periodicals abstracts of articles in atleast one of the widely-known languages;

8. Unesco should organize a meeting ofeditors and publishers of the major abstractingand indexing services and a symposium similarto the present one, not later than 1974.

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