FIVE LAWS OF LIBRARY SCIENCE

                                         S.R. Ranganathan (1892-1972)

I am an inventor, educator, librarian, philosopher and mathematician.
In 1928 I became involved in the development of the library at the University of Madras. This was a period in library history when the world was grappling with fundamental questions:
What is a library?
What is library service?
I believed that all human activities were susceptible to analysis using the scientific method and that such a careful examination of the phenomena of library work could lead to the formulation of empirical "laws."
These are not laws in the sense that, say, the Second Law of Thermodynamics is a law. However, they are more than mere generalities because they are founded on observation and analysis.
The principles I enunciate in my 5 Laws of Library Science are the first and, to date, the only clear definition of a library's functions and responsibilities. Although simply stated, the Laws demand contemplation and experience before the richness and import of their meaning will be revealed. The Laws provide essential guidelines for librarians with the potential for planning and providing patron services in all types of libraries. For a complete examination of these laws, please read my book. This is just a brief summary of my theories.

Five Laws of Library Science

• Books are for use
• Every reader his/her book
• Every book, its reader
• Save the time of the reader
• A library is a growing organism

First Law: Books are For Use

It is wrong to conclude from my words that books are the only library materials that matter to me. My point is that libraries must acquire materials and make them accessible so they can be used. This law gives definition both to the concept of an open-stack library and to a library that is appointed with tools and furnishings that make the books it contains useful. Books are to be taken from locked back rooms and brought out to welcoming rooms with open shelves. Shelves need to be accessible to more than one user at a time. Libraries are to be located in the midst of their communities. Whatever be the library location, hours of operation, type of furniture and the way in which books are kept, it is the Library Staff that ultimately make or mar a library. A Modern Librarian who has faith in this law is happy only when the readers make the shelves constantly empty.

Second Law: Every Reader His or Her Book

This law reveals the fundamental issue of tension between the cost of materials and the basic right of all persons to have access t the materials they need. This makes acquisitions very important; each acquisition should call to mind a potential user. One must always be mindful that since no one individual can own all the 'books', the libraries must acquire a body of literature or research materials that will benefit each of its readers and researchers. The collection must be appropriate to the Library's Mission. Librarians must know the materials, its uses, and how to use it. Reference service gains its legitimacy and its purpose from this law. Clearly, it is the business of librarians to know the reader, to know the books, and to actively help in the finding by every person of his or her book.

Third Law: Every Book its Reader

This law addresses the fundamental issue of open access. Open access means that the collection can be examined with as much freedom as if it was the reader's private library. In addition, when a library user comes to the library, or gains access to the library's services, there are certain materials that will meet his or her needs. It is the library's job to ensure that the connection between the user and the materials are made, and that the connection is as speedy and practical as possible. There are many ways in which a library can connect its users to its resources:
Distribution of acquisition lists
New Book displays
Providing Research Guides
Newsletters
Book Lists
The use of a structured, well-thought out classification scheme is a necessity for connecting library users to materials, as it ensures uniformity of treatment of various materials on similar topics. Also important is the accurate arrangement of materials, as misshelving a book can make it all but invisible to the user.

Fourth Law: Save the Time of the Reader

Perhaps this law is not so self-evident as the others. None the less, it has been responsible for many reforms in library administration. A Library must examine every aspect of its policies, rules, procedures, and systems with the one simple criteria that saving the time of the reader is vital to the library's mission. Policies must formulate with the needs of the library's user in mind. For example, hours of operation must be set in order to ensure appropriate and convenient access, and the collection must be arranged in an inviting, clear, and obvious way so as not to waste the time of the users. Saving time of the user means providing efficient, thorough access to materials.

Fifth Law: The Library is a Growing Organism

The 5th law tells us about the vital and lasting characteristics of the library as an institution and enjoins the need for a constatnt adjustment of our outlook in dealing with it. Libraries grow and change, and will always do so. Collections increase and change, technology changes and budgets change. Change comes along with growth, and in order to be healthy, that change and growth requires flexibility in the management of the collections, in the use of space, in the recruitment, retention and deployment of staff, and the nature of our programs.

My Laws Still Apply Today

My laws are meant to be elemental, in order to capture essential meaning and to convey a deep understanding of libraries. As libraries change with time these laws are meant to endure. However, I would like to express how these Laws pertain to the present state of information management and access.

Books are for Use

Limiting access to books has prevailed through time, and exists even today. The maintenance of special collections with limited access, storing materials off-site, restricting access to libraries based on membership or fees, and even by selecting materials that are contracted in such a way as to limit use, such as when print resources are eliminated in favour of an electronic version of the material that is only accessible to certain patrons with passwords, are all modern equivalents of chaining books to the shelves.
Another aspect of this first law that is still relevant is that libraries are about service or they are about nothing. In order to deliver and reap the rewards of services, libraries must identify the benefits that society can reasonably expect and then devise means of delivering those benefits. Service always has a purpose, and our careers of service still have purpose.

Every Reader His or Her Book

Any library that limits access in any way must ensure that this restriction does not prevent adequate access to the collection by the people that the library was created to serve. Access policies also have implications for interlibrary loan, cooperative acquisitions, and consortia to which the library may belong. Libraries must also be concerned with programs that provide for the preservation of materials in alternate formats, such as microfiche, CD-ROM, and other electronic formats. Librarians need to ask themselves:
Which formats are appropriate?
Which format will be most useful for the user?
What additional hardware or software must be acquired to facilitate their usage?
Who will or won't have access?
What are the issues surrounding access to printing, passwords, etc?
Librarians must acknowledge that users of the libraries, themselves included, use and value different means of communications in the pursuit of knowledge, information and entertainment. Libraries must value all means of preserving and communicating the records and achievements of the human mind and heart.

Every Book its Reader

In the digital age, getting the 'book' to its reader presents librarians with unique challenges, and the challenges presented by the emergence of electronic resources cannot be overstated! Libraries today must deal with electronic resources that are available 'within' the library but are neither owned nor shelved by the library. Libraries also have the additional challenge of providing access to 'cyber visitors' who use the library's web site for research. Technology, when intelligently applied, is a wonderful, life-enhancing thing. Technology exists to support the mission of librarians to assist in ready and free access to recorded knowledge and information, and to deliver library services effectively. However, technology must be useful, affordable, and cost-effective, and anything beyond that is on the path to dashed expectations and skewed priorities.

Save the Time of the Reader

When a library subscribes to electronic resources, appropriate access to them must be provided. When electronic databases are made available to the public, public access terminals and printing resources must also be made available. Naturally, libraries must also make the best use of available IP and networking technology. If materials are stored off-site (which in essence breaks the first law), provision must be made for easy and timely retrieval of those items.
Well-planned and executed library handbooks, stack guides, and library tours, or research instruction sessions also serve the goal of saving the time of the reader. The library must also provide adequate staffing of reference, information, and circulation desks, as well as telephone and chat reference. Ultimately, employing the best available technologies to provide quick access to materials saves the time of the reader.

The Library is a Growing Organism

I have shown, both in my original writings and in the adaptations of those laws to the present, how libraries have changed over time. The most obvious change I've addressed here is the shift to electronic resources. This shift has had a major impact on library funding and budget management. It is a common fallacy among many library administrators (professionals and non-librarians alike) who control library budgets that one way to save money is to merely cancel groups of subscriptions and then restart them in a year or so. As a living organism, libraries consume information, and any cessation in the flow of information starves the organism. Cutting a library off from its resources at any arbitrary point will surely make it ill, and perhaps may even kill it.