S. R. Ranganathan and the West by Ravindra Nath SharmaReview by: Mohamed TaherLibraries & Culture, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Summer, 1995), pp. 324-326Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542782 .

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324 L&C/Book Reviews

An expert of international reputation in military medicine, hospital con

struction, vital statistics and public health, in library matters, medical edu

cation, medical history and bibliography; he was a great organizer and

whatever field he approached was transformed.

Carleton Chapman takes his title from a letter that Billings wrote to his young bride in 1863 as a

military surgeon in the Union Army after the battle at Gettys

burg stating that he was "still trying to bring order out of chaos" (xiii), a trait that

this extraordinary man exhibited in several different areas of involvement during his life.

Since its publication in 1915, the biography of Billings by Fielding H. Garrison

(John Shaw Billings: A Memoir [New \brk: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915]), who served as one of his chief assistants in what was then called the Library of the Surgeon

General's Office, has been the most comprehensive. It seems never to have been

reprinted or reissued so this new biography by Chapman, which has been meticu

lously researched and well written and illustrated, is most welcome. The author, after a long and distinguished career as a medical educator, served as dean of the

medical school at Dartmouth and later as vice-president of the college. He has de

voted ten years, in the midst of his other activities, to researching many sources

that were not available to Garrison. He cites over twenty archival collections that

he has consulted (343-344).

Billings is known best to librarians and bibliographers as the architect of the

Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, which was published in four series between 1880 and 1961 and which brought world renown to Billings and the library he helped to create, and which, as the National Library of Medi

cine, is today the largest medical library in the world and one of the treasures of the

United States. He established a tradition that the library, under his distinguished successors, has continued in order to serve the international medical community in

bringing "order out of chaos" in the constantly burgeoning medical and scientific

literature. He was particularly important in recognizing the necessity of control

ling the periodical literature in both the Index Catalogue and the Index Medicus. It

was prophetic that, among his many other activities, he played a role in the devel

opment of machine analysis of statistical data and the tabulating machine pat ented by Hollerith. This is a role that the library, under Frank B. Rogers, Martin

Cummings (to whom the book is dedicated), and its current director, Donald

Lindberg, has continued to foster and in which it has provided leadership.

Billings played important roles in the development of public health programs in

the United States, hospital design, and medical education. His crowning achieve

ment was to serve as the first director of the New York Public Library in bringing

together three great private libraries to create one of the world's prominent re

search libraries.

This is an eminently readable book, which should engage the attention not only of librarians and bibliographers but also anyone interested in the intellectual his

tory of the United States.

David A. Kronick, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

S. R. Ranganathan and the West. Edited by Ravindra Nath Sharma. New Delhi: Ster

ling Publishers, 1992. 179 pp. Rs. 250/-. ISBN 81-207-1475-X.

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325

This book is a collection of articles dealing with the life and works of S. R.

Ranganathan (1892-1972), written by seventeen "Western" writers, to commemo

rate the birth centenary of the leader. Incidentally, "West" is limited here to

Canada, England, and the United States. Moreover, there are four Indian Ameri

cans who have also contributed, i.e., Abul Fazl M. Fazle Kabir, Anindya Bose,

R. N. Sharma (the editor of this book), and Kul B. Gauri. Hence this is not just Western perception on the leader from the East, rather it is a global "sample."

For those who wish to understand Ranganathan through Western eyes, they

may also see T S. Rajagopalan (ed.): Ranganathan's Philosophy: Assessment, Impact and

Relevance (New Delhi: Vikas, 1986), a collection of seminar proceedings that has

twelve articles by Western authors. There are many more sources that will provide food for thought.

The other contributors, in the book under review, are Mohammed M. Aman, Pauline (Atherton) Cochrane, John P. Comaromi, Lee W Finks, Eugene Garfield,

K. C. Harrison, Kenneth William Humphrey, Nasser Sharify, and William G.

Stiles. Except for a reprint of Garfield's article, all are original contributions.

Ranganathan had travelled to most of the Western countries, and more than

travelling, his contacts were very good with the professionals all over the world.

Interestingly, the seventeen contributors have not all met Ranganathan. While

most of them had an occasion to meet him, few knew him well, and few ever saw

him personally. Of all the contributors, the one who is most influenced by Ranganathan is

Pauline Atherton, about whom the editor says, "She professes to be guided in her

professional thinking by the 'Five Laws of Library Science.' "

Indeed, her lectures

were devoted to how the laws apply. I believe her when she says that "they infuse

her thought" (11). In her own words, "My immediate impression upon reading the five statements called 'The Five Laws of Library Science' in the first book by

Dr. Ranganathan that I found was one of amusement. Yes, I smiled, and thought to myself, 'how simple he makes it all sound, when really it is much more compli cated!'" (50).

The book has articles on a variety of topics dealing with his multifaceted

personality, like Aman's "Ranganathan the Classifictionist," Harrison's

"Ranganathan and British Librarianship," Finks's "Ranganathan's Contribution

to American Librarianship," Kwasnik's "The Legacy of Facet Analysis," Mcllwaine's "Ranganathan and University College London," and others. Added

to these is Ravindra N. Sharmar's "Ranganathan and the West: A Chronology." This festschrift is a useful recollection of impressions of some representatives of

the profession. There is in this book another article, by Finks and Haug, surveying

Ranganathan's cited works, frequency of citations, nature of the citations, content

of citations, and suggestions for further research on empirical, quantitative, and

descriptive measurement of the influence of Ranganathan on U.S. and Canadian

library science.

This survey reveals the ranking (in descending order) by frequency of citations:

"Colon Classification" (18.9 percent), "Prolegomena to Library Classification"

(17.2 percent), and "The Five Laws of Library Science" (9.8 percent). By nature of

cited works, the ranking is Classification (45.8 percent), Philosophy of Librarian

ship (13.7 percent), Cataloging (11.3 percent), and Library Education, Library Organization (11.3 percent). By contents, the ranking is evaluative (most), non-evaluative (less) and implicit (least). The summary of the evaluation shows:

favourable (30.4 percent), non-judgmental (28.4 percent), very favourable (18.6

percent), and balanced (14.7 percent).

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326 L&C/'Book Reviews

In short, the book is a readable, cherishable, and knowledgeable source on one

man ?his contributions, his influences, and his greatness. One may feel, here, that

adoring (respecting and revering, for which he was called "Father of Indian Li

brarianship") is an Eastern trait, and for the West honoring (appreciating and

praising, see the appendix, 178-179, for the resolutions adopted by ALA) is one

way to pay lip service. Ranganathan kept his ideas open and declared that ideas

are for use. Despite this openness there is hardly any direct impact of this leading

professional leader of this century. There are indications of some indirect influences

on "DDC" ( 15); on Classification Research Group, and its faceted patterns in clas

sification schemes; on "BNB," and of all, Colon Classification is used at the Metal

Box Company and at Christ College, Cambridge, U.K. (20-23), and these are

samples of "influences." The generation which personally knew Ranganathan, i.e.,

Palmer, Sayers, etc., is no more to influence. Those who have been influenced by his works are also a category, soon extinguishing in the West.

To his friends and critics there are some questions. His classification scheme,

laws, canons, education, training, preaching, and so on, are probably getting faded. Is there any fault? Where lies the obsolescence factor, does anyone know?

Some feel that even India is gradually losing touch with his all-compassing litera

ture. The question they present is, that like Caesar and Alexander, whether

Ranganathan is also a part of fiction or a reality. The answer may lie in yet another

intensive and extensive analysis of his life and work, to be performed by the bearers

of Ranganathan's legacy as well as by "outsiders." One can use for such an analy sis questions (as used by Finks, 72), like number and nature of publications that

have been cited or reviewed in the world; nature of references in citations or re

views; type of references, evaluative, descriptive, or non-evaluative, etc. One can

also study the impact factor of these citations, and qualitative analysis can be per formed as a supplementary study. One may also study the institutions and agen cies that he supported all through, to see if these are responsible for the

obsolescence. There can be many such issues, and a researcher in the field can em

ploy all possible means and pursue the topic. The book is an important addition to the literature of the profession. It is useful

for all those who think that librarianship is both international and comparative and not localized and internalized. It is also useful for all schools of library and

information science that wish to present to their products the idea that there are,

elsewhere, equally great leaders as Dewey, Sayers, Shera, and so on, whose contri

butions are not so small that the profession can easily ignore them.

Mohamed Taker, American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, India

Blitzkrieg and Books: British and European Libraries as Casualties of World War II. By Hilda Ur?n Stubbings. Bloomington, Ind.: Rubena, 1993. xiii, 471 pp. $62.50.

ISBN 1-880622-02-5.

Blitzkrieg and Books is one of those unfortunate books that make a reviewer won

der how it ever got published. The book's problems begin with lack of focus. The

closest approach to a statement of purpose is the last two paragraphs of the chapter "To the Reader." Here the author makes several points that give the reader some

idea of her interests and views and a preview of her writing style: "Presenting facts

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