Course:LIBR559A/Carr, P. L. (2014)

Citation

Carr, P. L. (2014). Reimagining the library as a technology: an analysis of Ranganathan’s five laws of library science within the social construction of technology framework. Library Quarterly: information, community, policy, 84(2). Available at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/675355.

Annotation

The article presents theories of the technology field and analyzes Ranganathan’s five laws. The author states that the library is a technology, according to Ranganathan and Gorman – who developed five new laws of librarianship. By saying that libraries are a collection of books built for a purpose, and books are for use, the author states that Ranganathan classifies libraries as technology. Carr analyzes each of the Ranganathan’s law:

• 1st – Books are for use: so, a library is a kind of technology

• 2nd – Every person his or her book: connects the meanings constructed for libraries and communities

• 3rd – Every book its reader: library should develop a collection according to a community need and should implement services to match the needs with the collection.

• 4th – Save the time of the reader: instead of looking the community need, this law shift to the library’s effectiveness in meeting those needs.

• 5th – A library is a growing organism: the library, which is a technology, is dynamic.

Through analyzing today’s libraries, the author argues that several services and the library itself have attitudes that fit better into SCOT framework, than technological determinism. For example, services and demands are created, through the community need, and not the opposite, where libraries would develop services and it would determine its use by the community.

The author defines technological determinism as “the nature of a technology determines the nature of use and changes in use follow from changes in the technology itself” (p. 157) and SCOT as “actions and behaviors of user communities determine a technology’s meaning, not the design or intended functionalities of the technology itself” (p. 153).

The article contests the Ranganathan's five laws, by saying that even though it helped the library science to develop, librarians should consider the dynamic context of the information field, and so not take it as a timeless truth. The analysis made by the author is interesting and relevant to the LIS area, because it provokes librarians to think differently than what the laws state. Librarians should analyze contexts in a more user-centered perspective, and not library-centered, which some of the Ranganathan's laws state.

Areas, topics and keywords

Five laws of Ranganathan. Ranganathan. Social construction of technology framework. SCOT framework.

Page author Paula Arasaki