esoTalk
LAW OF LIBRARY SCIENCE AND BASIC LAWS
INTRODUCTION
The normative principles of classification have been recognized for a long time, and have proved to be highly useful. These have provided & scientific basis to the field of classification. The classificationists and classifiers have been making their use to a varying extent. These principles can serve the following purposes:
(i) They can serve as the basis of a classification scheme. As such, the schedules of a scheme should be compiled by a classificationist, keeping in view the spirit of these principles;
(ii) Critical study of a given scheme of classification can be carried out with the the help of these principles;
(iii) The principles can be very helpful for the purpose of comparing schedules of different schemes of classification;
(iv) A given number can be interpreted on a scientific basis with their assistance; and
(v) Principles can provide guidance to a classifier in the day-to-day work of classification, such as creating a number for a new subject.
Ranganathan adopted a convention regarding the use of words like laws, canons, and principles. These are all normative principles, used in a particular context. He has postulated!ed these for work in different levels, as given below:
Name of Normative Principles
Basic process of thinking Library Science Classification Helpful sequence in array Principles
Basic Laws
Laws Fundamental Canons
Laws of Library Science and Basic Laws
Work of classifying
Postulates and principles
Far facet sequence
The term "basic law” is used at the level of a basic process of thinking. “Fundamental law" is applied at the level of library science as a discipline. "Canon” is used in the context of divisions of the first order of the discipline of library science, such as classification, cataloging, book selection, and so on. The term "principle" is applied in the context of divisions of the second or later order of library science, such as a helpful sequence in array and facet sequence. Ranganathan has recognized the following basic laws: Laws of interpretation
Law of impartiality Law of symmetry Law of parsimony Law of local variation Law of osmosis
LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE
Ranganathan's Five Laws of library science was published in 1931. Five laws of library science, and their implications, have been described in this work. These laws provide a scientific approach to library science. The spirit of these laws pervades in the writings of Ranganathan. These laws have been accepted as the basis of library science.
The laws of library science (Prolegomena, pp. 115-22) are specific normative principles, applicable to any problem in the fields of library science, library practice, and library service. These are called the Fundamental Laws of Library Science which contain in a hidden (or latent) form, all the library practices of the past and present, and those likely to be evolved in the future.
The canons and principles of classification are all an implication of the laws of library science. In the case of a conflict between canons and/or principles, an appeal is made to the five laws of library science to resolve the conflict. Thus, the five laws serve as a higher court. If there is a conflict between the canons of classification and the basic Jaws, then a compromise can be achieved with the aid of the laws of
'S.R. Ranganathan, Five laws of library science. Madras, Madras Library Association, 1931 (the second edition was published in 1957).
The first law says: "Books are for use." The word "book" should be interpreted to stand for "document". The first law would feel satisfied if the right book and the right reader can be brought together. Take the example of the arrangement of books on shelves. These can be arranged in a variety of ways-authorize, subjectwise, and so on. The author arrangement would be useful to those users who want a book by a particular author. Similarly, the subject arrangement would be helpful to those who make a subject approach. Our experience shows that more users request books on a particular subject than for books by a particular author. Therefore, if books are arranged according to a subject, more users would find it helpſul. This will lead to greater use of bocks and hence satisfy the first law of library science.
The second law says: "Every reader his book." Here, the emphasis is on the reader. Our experience shows that more users request books on a particular subject than for those by an author. Keeping in view the subject approach, it would be helpful in all the books on a given subject was brought together. 'This would add to their usefulness if, within the subject, books were further arranged language-wise. Let the books for each language in a subject is arranged, according to their year of publication (latest books lying at the end of the group). All this would help in getting every reader his book, thereby satisfying the second law.
Most of the users are not able to pinpoint the specific subject of their interest. They are wont to name a broader or narrower subject. When a user goes to the shelves containing books, he should find the complete area of interest spread before him in a logical manner, so that he can become vaguely conscious of what he wants. The books on & topic should be found together. Books on different topics should be arranged according to their degree of filiation. This means that the arrangement on the shelf should "display the full field of a reader's interest, unexpressed as well as expressed. When he looks along the shelves of the library, he should find there what he was only vaguely conscious of wanting; indeed, it is only then that he will be able to realize exactly what it is that he wants" (Prolegomena, p. 120). This will lead to satisfaction-a deeper function performed by the arrangement of books. This will enable every reader to get his book.
The third law prescribes: "Every books its reader.” The emphasis is on the book. Books should be arranged so that every book finds a reader. At least the probability for getting a reader should be very high. If the books are arranged so that the subjects get arranged according to the degree of mutual relationship, then each book would have a high probability of getting its reader. This will meet the demands of third law. Incidentally, this will also satisfy the second law.
The fourth law says: "Save the time of the reader.” A user must be assumed to be a busy person, and his time must be saved. The arrangement of books according to the degree of mutual relationship of subjects would lead to saving his time. In addition, if within each subject, books are arranged by language and within language by their year of publication, then it would lead to more saving of time. It should be understood that an alphabetical arrangement of subjects will be unhelpful and time-consuming.
According to the fifth law: "A library is a growing organism." The library will grow in terms of documents, readers, and staff. The arrangement should be such that it should facilitate the service of books ir respective of the size of the library or its rate of growth in terms of documents, readers, and staff. The arrangement of books suggested in the earlier paras would lead to greater use of books, irrespective of the size of the library or its rate of growth. This satisfies the fifth law.
LAWS OF INTERPRETATION
Ranganathan refers to 1,008 principles of interpretation, listed in the Nayakosa. These principles are applicable in interpreting legal texts. The canons, principles, postulates, and rules of classification taken together can be considered a legal document. Therefore, we should interpret various sections just like a legal text. In case of a conflict, the conflict should be resolved with the aid of the laws of interpretation. If necessary, the rules, principles, and canons should also be modified (in the light of experience) to solve the conflicts.
It has been suggested by Ranganathan that Colon classification should be scrutinized from the angle of these laws. This will help in determining many of its weaknesses CC could be revised to over corre these weaknesses. Similarly, 11.c laws of interpretation can be applied in the study of other schemes also.
LAW OF IMPARTIALITY
The law (Prolegomena, p. 125) directs that between two or more claimants (e.g., for the first position among two facets of a subject or the choice to be made among the needs of different categories of users) preference should be made only on sufficient grounds, and not arbitrarily.
EXAMPLES:
(i) The law of impartiality insists that the sequence of facets in different subjects should not be determined in an arbitrary manner in each subject. The sequence should be based on some guiding principles of a gencral nature, equally applicable to all subjects. That is why Ranganathan has suggested the application of a wall-picture principle for facet sequence.
(ii) From the first edition, Colon classification has been using the digit "9" as an empty or sectorizing digit. It was only later that empty digits (z, Z) from other species of digits, such as Roman smalls and Roman caps, were employed. This has given satisfaction to the law of impartiality, as a similar thing has been done for different species of digits-that is, one digit was reserved as an empty digit in different species of digits.
(iii) In CC, from 1952 to 1963, different distinctive indicator digits were employed for personality, matter and energy facets. However, the same indicator digit was used for the space and time facets, which violated the spirit behind the law. It was in 1963 that Ranganathan decided to use distinctive symbols for space and time facets. This gave satisfaction to the law.
LAW OF SYMMETRY
The law prescribes (Prolegomena, p. 126), that of two cotities or situations which admit of being regarded as symmetrical counterparts of each other, if one entity or situation is given weight in any particular context, the other entity or situation should also be given a cor responding weight.
EXAMPLES:
(i) In CC, Ranganathan allocated greater ordinal value to Roman caps than Indo-Arabic numerals. Later Roman small letters were used to represent posteriorizing common isolates. These were given lesser ordinal value than Indo-Arabic numerals, which led to the satisfaction of the law of symmetry.
(ii) Ranganathan adopted digits 9, z, and Z as emply digits for the extrapolation of isolates in an array. The law of symmetry suggested for a provision to interpolate isolates. The concept of empty ing digits has enabled the interpolation of isolates in an array. This has given satisfaction to the law.
(iii) The provision of zones has provided for extrapolation at the end of on array. The law of symmetry also emphasized the making of a provision for extrapolation at the beginning of an array. This became possible due to the use of digit 'O' (zero) as an empty digit.
LAW OF PARSIMONY
The law (Prolegontena, p. 127) directs that between two or more possible alternatives bearing on a particular phenomenon, the one leading to the overall economy of man power, material, money and time, considered together with proper weightage, is to be preferred.
Overall the economy in library classification can be achieved by making the class number as short as possible. The use of mixed notation, such as Roman caps and Arabic numerals, provided these are fami liar to the users of a particular library can be helpful in reducing the load on the memory of those using class numbers. A faceted scheme consists of a set of schedules instead of a single schedule for all sub jects in enumerative classification. Our experience shows that the length of schedules gets reduced in the first one, thereby satisfying the law of parsimony.
EXAMPLES:
Colon Classification employs various devices to shorten the length of the schedule of an array (such as chronological device, geographical device, subject device , and so on). Dewey decimal classification and Universal decimal classification use the geographical device and the subject device to achieve the same results.
In case a collection is to be reclassified; the law of parsimony would suggest that only that part of the collection is classified which is known to be in much use, and also those documents which are returned by the users after being taken out by them from the collec tion.
In CC, the telescoping of array has been applied (as, for example, in botany). Telescoping of two consecutive arrays generally leads to the saving of one digit in the class number for the class of a later order. This has been done to satisfy the law of parsimony.
The law of parsimony should be applied carefully. Its application is restricted only to alternatives bearing on a particular phenomenon. In no case should it overlook the demands of the laws of library science or the canons of classification?
The law of local variation says "that in any discipline and techni que there should be provided for the users of them to secure, for strictly local use, results alternative to those for general use" (Prole gomena, p. 129). Therefore, the law directs towards the formation of special collections of documents separate from the general collection.
In case there are alternative schemes provided as part of a published cd scheme for classification, then a user of the scheme can choose one of the alternatives and apply it permanently. However, such a scheme would not prove to be sound for a national bibliography or for international documentation. But provisions for a local collection to be given the first position in the sequence, and also for shorter class numbers for documents belonging to the local collection, can be very useful. Such a scheme can be beneficial for a given library as well as for international documentation.
The word "local" should be interpreted broadly to refer to a geographical area, irrespective of the size-such as European interests, interests of developing countries, Indian interests, Rajasthani inte rests, and so on. One can go on to interests peculiar to a village or of a particular library. However, special interests are largely con fined to the national level, except for local collections in local libra ries.
EXAMPLES FROM DDC 18:
In DDC 18, under 292-299, there is an instruction which says that “if it is desired to give local emphasis and a shorter number to a specific religion, place it first by use of a letter or other symbol, e.g., Hinduism 2H0 (preceding 220), or 29H (preceding 291 or 292)" (DDC 18, v. 2, p. 588).
Under 230-280 it reads: (if it is desired to give local emphasis and more and shorter numbers to a specific religion, e.g., Buddhism,
Laws of Library Science and Basic Laws 105
it is optional to class it here and its sources in 220; in that ca e class Bible and Christianity in 298)" (DDC 18, v. 2, p. 540). Under 810, it reads: "(if it is desired to give local emphasis and a shorter num ber to a specific literature, e.g., Afrikaans literature, it is optional to class it here; in that case class American literature in English in 820)" (DDC 18, v. 2, p. 1497).
Rote similar to the above is also available at 081-089.
EXAMPLES FROM CC:
In space isolates, digit 2 represents mother country. This leads to a shortening of the class numbers, as well as provides priority to documents concerned with the mother country. Digit 3 has been reserved for a favored country. This digit is used to represent the locality (it may be a state, town or village etc.) of special interest, on which the library may want to set up a local collection. In the ab sence of a local collection, digit 3 is used to represent the favored country (the countries about which there are more documents in the library than other foreign countries).
The above usages of digits, 2 and 3 will allow for local variation in most of the subjects, because space isolates occur in most of the subjects, as common isolates. It will considerably shorten the class numbers and also give priority to local collection on the shelf.
In CC6, the scheme allows for the use of the digit dash (-) for the favoured language of the library in the language facet of a class number (CC6, p. 1.54). This shortens the notation and documents belonging to the favored language get priority over documents be longing to other languages.
In CC6, R6 represents Indian philosophy and R7 stands for Greek philosophy. These places have been allotted to two systems because there is a considerable amount of literature on these. "But it is open to libraries, hose collections are different, to use 'R6' and 'R7' for such philosophical systems as are represented most in their collections" (CC6, p. 1.111). This allows for favored treatment to philo sophical systems of local interest.
In CC6, the dash ( - ) has been used as the favoured focus num ber, it is used to denote the language isolates (for example, the English language isolate) in the basic class literature. This is used for a library specializing in a given language (for example, the English language).
A library may specialize in a given subject (such as microbiology). It would also process books on other subjects. In CC, it is possible
(B) Maintain two catalogs (old catalog and new catalog) and sequences on the shelf.
(C) The attention of readers should be directed by the reference librarian to the two sequences on a shelf and to two catalogs. If a library decides to re-catalog and re-classify the entire collec tion, then in most cases the cost would be enormous. Often, the necessary finance is made available for the purpose at the cost of active service of book funds. As the cost of re-cataloging and re-classification can be very high, most libraries avoid it. However, the approach suggested by Ranganathan reduces the cost and makes it possible for most of the libraries to go in for re-cataloging and re-classification if found essential due to the direction from the canon of context.
The approach not only reduces the cost but is a practicable one; without affecting the service of the library-thus satisfying the canon of context and the law of parsimony. The basis of the method is that the old documents, which are used rarely. need not be re-classified and re-cataloged. In the beginning, there would be a great deal of extra work to be done. Therefore, extra staff would be required in the initial stage. But later on, the quantum of extra work would be reduced and become less and less. The active collection would be smaller, as also its catalog, The users would find it more conve nient and helpful to use an active collection.
If the principle is followed, then the change-over will involve the least cost, manpower, and time. This will also satisfy the law of par simony. Service to users would be hampered to the least extent.!
The success of the application of the law of osmosis would certain. lt depends upon the effectiveness of management. If the method is not implemented properly, it will lead to confusion, and affect the services. The principle is rather sound but it must be implemented with due care and proper planning.
FURTHER READING
S. R. RANGANATIAN, Prolegomena to library classification, 3rd ed., Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1967
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon