1. S.R. Ranganathan & Reference Service in the Modern Library

3. How do libraries incorporate Ranganathan’s 5 laws in the modern library?

13. Books are for use. The library should house materials that are useful to their community. “ A library is not a museum but a workshop full of life and activity. It is not the books which gets rapidly worn out by constant use that should worry a library according to this view, but it is the book which would seldom leave the shelf that needs anxious attention and effective treatment. This view is now revolutionizing everything connected with the library.” --S.R. Ranganathan, Classified catalogue code... Ed.5, 1964; Sec. DA3

14. Open Access. Library materials should be available to be used. “ A library is made big not by the number of its books, but by its use. A few books kept continuously in active use form a library than miles of books kept largely locked in the cupboards of a monumental building.” --S.R. Ranganathan, Library manual. Ed.3, 1960; Sec. 111

15. The Role of the Library Profession Libraries must make their materials accessible. “ The Library profession should not exhaust its thought, energy and interest in merely acquiring and processing reading materials. It should realize that these are only means to an end and that the end is to get the books used widely and profitably.” -S.R. Ranganathan, Library science with a slant to documentation, Vol. 2, 1965, p295

16. A User-Centered Library The library should be as accommodating as possible. “ One of the necessary conditions for social service institutions, such as the library, becoming popular is the fostering of a feeling of mutual cordiality and helpfulness between those who offer service and those who are served, together with a disposition to self-sacrifice. To this end, the library should strive to reduce formality to a minimum and make everyone feel at home. As a natural extension of this attitude, a modern library even goes so far in its effort as to make personal and social contacts and not infrequently offers meeting place for local learned organizations in an attempt to make them, as constituent parts of the general public, feel that it desires to function as an intellectual centre for the locality.” S.R. Ranganathan, Library manual. Ed.3, 1960;p77

17. The Original Bookmobile S.R. Ranganathan’s concept of the mobile rural library in 1930.