Prolegomena to Library Classification

Works of Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (S.R. Ranganathan) need no introduction. They are renowned not because they cover certain facet of library and information science, but because they have been written by the father of library science in india, Dr. Ranganathan. These library science classics have been reprinted to make Dr. Ranganathan's work available to the current generation of librarians and for those to come. The ideas contained in this book form the foundation of subject classification and the book is S.R. Ranganathan's magnum opus in that field. "A most precise, theoretical, practical, and comparative exposition of library classification theory ... intensely original. It is not within my space here to say in what ways it over-rode many of the obstacles to real understanding of the art of analyzing and assembling books; that the student will discover by the rewarding study of the book itself" (In Preface to edition 2 by W.C. Berwick Sayers). In the present digital age, Ranganathan's ideas on subject classification provide guidelines for the organization of knowledge in whatever medium, including digital, audio, video forms and the www, that knowledge may be embodied . "... in homage to Ranganathan, I believe he, more than any other scholar of our discipline, has striven to establish classification upon a scientific foundation." (Dr. Elaine Svenonius, former Professor, UCLA, in Libri, v.42, No. 3 (1992); p. 176)