Celebrating National Librarian's Day in India

 

I make sure that read a book on Library or Librarian during National Librarian's Day which is celebrated on 12th August in India. This year I read biography of SR Ranganathan father of Indian Library (Information) Science. This is written by Yogeshwar son of SR Ranganathan. 

 I am sharing my understanding and point of view. Writing a biography and that to if it is about father it’s really a difficult task. The way writer made the perspective of personality of SR Ranganathan as a person and as a professional librarian from various sources including as a son his observations seems to be a commendable task. When one reads there are various areas where there is a disagreement between father and son and those aspects are mentioned as well.  

 The books deal with details of life from his childhood to his last days in a manner that a reader gets to know more about SR Ranganathan from various angles. Life of Ranganathan with highs and lows as anyone goes through but his vision remained intact about making the libraries as institutions of learning than mere houses of books. Though he went to England to get trained in the profession his zeal to make it more scientific to address the problems of libraries of his time and also visualize the future is what made me see his creative side. His vision that was far ahead of his times and the way he strives to bring about the infrastructure and building institutions to make the vision take its shape is a motivating factor. For the development of the country his solution is to make the country literate and he viewed libraries that need to play a vital role. His works stressed the same those include books, research, initiatives in the libraries acts and professional associations etc. I wonder after reading the book, are we doing enough to keep the vision of SR Ranganathan and see in the light of modern times?