S. R. Ranganathan (1892- 1972)
S. R. Ranganathan was way ahead of his time. A mathematician by education (B.A. and M.A. in Mathematics), he thought deeply about information organization and classifications. He proposed what is today known as the “Colon Classification System”, which is fundamentally different and IMO, fundamentally superior than the more established classification systems (Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System). For programmers of today, colon classification is analogous to the object-oriented model, where ability to change and adapt is built in.Ranganathan was subject to many a hardships in the hands of government and administration, and was repeatedly denied opportunities due to his caste. He finally had to resign his job at the Madras University. But his ideas were recognized by many scholars in Europe and in USA who saw the merits of a future-proof content classification system. Ranganathan died in 1972 in Bangalore.
Ranganathan’s multi-faceted classification ideas have found wide-ranging applications in modern computer science — from naming of reusable software components to categorizing web content.
