User talk:G R Taneja

The usefulness of the Ranganathan system for the actual end user of a library.

I can't judge Ranganathan's academic accomplishments, but I notice that the article does not touch on the usefulness of the Colon system for the readers/library members who need to select books on their own. I have been members of libraries which use the colon classification system. A random survey reveals that almost all the users of such libraries depend on the library staff to identify a book on the shelves. Very rarely indeed I have come across a user in such libraries who could go straight to the shelves for the book he is looking for merely with the help of a book's call number. Compared to this, the Dewey decimal system users need only be literate and numerate to go pick up a book from the shelf with a call number taken from the catalogue. Ranganathan system may be good for the library staff and its esoteric nature may give it the nature of exclusive snobbishness, but it is an impenetrable wall between the reader and the book.¬¬¬¬