Abstract
This chapter traces the actualities and possibilities of representing social justice and social equity concerns in LIS via extending Ranganathan's five laws of librarianship within today's contemporary neoliberal and geopolitical realities. Blinders in librarianship are identified in its resistance to intentional, systematic, action-oriented, community-engaged, and impact-driven strategies of social justice and real change owing to its White-IST (white + elitist) roots. These are speculated in relation to the profession's undervaluing of Ranganathan's contributions because of his South Asian (i.e., East Indian) origins as a result of the pedestalizing of its Anglo/Eurocentric components within the legacies of a colonized and imperialistic world order. A manifesto of social justice laws of librarianship is proposed to address past and recent lapses in LIS.
TopIntroduction
Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892-1972) is considered the father of library science (or librarianship), documentation, and information science in India with his vast knowledge, direction, purpose, creativity, sensitivity, and vision for the growth of the intersecting professions in the country, and the world at large (Das and Patra, 2008; Garfield, 1984; La Barre, 2004; Mehra, Potnis, and Morden, 2012; Sharma, 1984). Sir Maurice Gwyer, former vice-chancellor, Delhi University, once called Ranganathan the “prince among librarians” (Sharma, 1979, p. 58). Jesse Hauk Shera, an eminent American librarian and information scientist who spearheaded technology use in libraries from 1950-1970, wrote: “If there is any single individual who merits being called a 'one man library movement,' certainly he [Ranganathan] has earned that distinction through his accomplishments in India” (Shera, 1963, p.581). Amongst his numerous achievements in library and information science (LIS), Ranganathan is most well-known globally for the five laws of library science (Ranganathan, 1931), development of the first faceted classification (i.e., Colon Classification) (Ranganathan, 1933), and chain indexing for deriving subject-index entries (Ranganathan, 1938). Ranganathan was also a wise LIS educator and faculty member in various Indian universities, making noteworthy contributions such as starting the first LIS doctoral program at the University of Delhi in 1948 (Kumar, 1987).
This chapter briefly traces the actualities and possibilities of representing social justice and social equity concerns in LIS via extending Ranganathan’s five laws of library science within today’s contemporary neoliberal and geopolitical realities (Buschman, 2017; Cifor and Lee, 2017; Mehra, 2021a; Ranganathan, 1931). Blinders in librarianship owing to its White-IST (white + elitist) roots are essentially responsible for its resistance to intentional, systematic, action-oriented, community-engaged, and impact-driven strategies that further social justice and real change, via information-related work, in the everyday lives of all people, including those on the margins of society (Cooke, 2020; Gray and Mehra, 2021; Mehra, 2021b). Such limitations in LIS as a discipline and field are referenced in this chapter, also, in relation to the biases perpetuated in its scholarship and practice (Abbott, 2001; Bonnici, Julien, and Burnett, 2013; Lugya, 2014; Mehra, 2021c; Moniarou-Papaconstantinou et al., 2010). One problematic dimension of this in an oppressive LIS climate has led to a possible under-application of Ranganathan’s contributions (e.g., Colon Classification) because of his South Asian (i.e., East Indian) origins in a western world that solely pedestalized its Anglo/Eurocentric LIS components within the historical legacies of a colonized and imperialistic world order (Naidu, 2017). In a reflective critique of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), Donald G. Davis, Jr. (2000) notes that even in the 1950s, Ranganathan himself provided a “brave and damning indictment of the treatment the so-called developing world” (p. 15) received in the IFLA organization, when he suggested the persistence of “the old view that 'international' in IFLA is exhausted by Western Europe and Northern America” and “It may be unconscious and even unmeant on their part. But to us outsiders, it is clear as day light in the tropics” (Ranganathan, 1954, p. 183).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Anglo/Eurocentric LIS: The predominant privileging and pedestalizing of sources, canons, people, research, and practices in library and information science that trace their origins to North America and Europe within historical and contemporary legacies of a colonized and imperialistic world order.
Social Justice Laws of Librarianship: The social justice laws of librarianship discussed in this chapter extend Ranganathan’s conceptualization of the five laws of library science to identify new directions of contemporary value in making a potential impact at the social, cultural, political, and economic levels in external community settings. Each social justice law is structured in terms of the “what to do” (i.e., why) and the “how to do” suggestions for readers to actualize them in their own work environments. In this manner, readers can draw on these pieces together in helping them operationalize and implement the laws in their situational contexts while responding to the diverse circumstances and conditions they experience.
Five Laws of Library Science: The five laws of library science developed by Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan in 1931 include: 1) The books are to be used; 2) Every reader has his book; 3) Every book has its reader; 4) Save the reader’s time; 5) A library is a growing organism.
Social Justice Manifesto: This chapter in its totality represents a social justice manifesto to revitalize and re-interpret Ranganathan’s five laws of library science as the “renewed” social justice laws of librarianship that can make an impact at social, cultural, political, and economic levels via changing imbalanced systemic power structures in society. The reconstruction of the social justice laws of librarianship are framed in terms of the “FROM” highlighting the original “TO” their new form and meaning.
Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan: Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892-1972) AU16: The in-text citation "Ranganathan (1892-1972)" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. is considered the father of library science (or librarianship), documentation, and information science in India with his vast knowledge, direction, purpose, creativity, sensitivity, and vision for the growth of the intersecting professions in the country, and the world at large. Amongst his numerous achievements in library and information science, Ranganathan is most well-known globally for the five laws of library science, development of the first faceted classification (i.e., Colon Classification), and chain indexing for deriving subject-index entries.
Impact: The actuality and possibility of the library and information science professions to make a difference in the everyday lives of people and generate social, cultural, political, and economic outcomes that are meaningful to them via information-related work.
Social Justice and Social Equity in LIS: A social justice and social equity perspective in library and information science leans toward strong activism and advocacy to support fairness, justice, equity/equality, change agency, and community development via information-related work, with, and on behalf of all people, especially those considered on society’s margins.
Library and Information Science: Historically, library and information science had its roots in librarianship and has traditionally focused on creation, organization, storage, access, management, retrieval, dissemination, education, and use of information. The second decade of the 21 st century is providing a renewed conceptualization of the library and information science professions as the field of information, articulated also in terms of the vision of the iSchool movement that seeks to integrate interdisciplinary approaches in connecting people, information, and technology coming together.