Development of Libraries, Legislation and Professional Bodies
What it is
Unit II covers the institutions of librarianship: Indian library history and committees, types of libraries, library legislation, Ranganathan's Five Laws, the profession and its ethics, associations, LIS education, public relations, users and information literacy. Examiners favour founding years, committee chairs, model stages and the law behind a practice. Facts that can change are stated as of 2026-10.
Core concepts
Historical development, committees and commissions. Takshashila, Nalanda (library precinct Dharmaganja), Vikramashila and Odantapuri held manuscript collections. Modern landmarks: Asiatic Society library (1784), Calcutta Public Library (1836), Imperial Library (1891), which absorbed the Calcutta Public Library and opened to the public under Lord Curzon in 1903, renamed the National Library in 1948 and opened at Belvedere in 1953. Sayajirao Gaekwad III brought W.A. Borden to Baroda (1910). Committees: UGC Library Committee under Ranganathan (1957); Advisory Committee for Libraries under K.P. Sinha (1957); the P.N. Kaula Working Group for the Seventh Plan; CONPOLIS under D.P. Chattopadhyaya (1985–86); and the National Knowledge Commission (2005).
Types of libraries. Academic libraries (school, college, university) support teaching and research. Public libraries give free, tax-funded service to all through state central, district, town and village libraries; Delhi Public Library (1951) began as a UNESCO pilot project. Special libraries serve a defined clientele or mission with documentation, CAS and SDI. National libraries collect the national output by legal deposit and preserve it; in India the Central Reference Library, Kolkata compiles the Indian National Bibliography.
Library legislation, PRB Act and Delivery of Books Act. A Public Library Act creates a library authority, a network and assured funds, often a library cess. Ranganathan drafted a Model Public Libraries Act (1930). State Acts: Madras (Tamil Nadu) 1948, the first; Hyderabad 1955; Andhra Pradesh 1960; Mysore (Karnataka) 1965; Maharashtra 1967; West Bengal 1979; Manipur 1988; Kerala 1989; Haryana 1989; Goa and Mizoram 1993; Gujarat and Odisha 2001; more followed. The Press and Registration of Books Act 1867 made printers deliver copies of books to the State Government; it has been replaced by the Press and Registration of Periodicals Act 2023, which covers periodicals, not books (as of 2026-10). The Delivery of Books (Public Libraries) Act 1954, extended to newspapers in 1956, makes a publisher deliver, at its own cost within 30 days, one copy of each book to the National Library, Kolkata and one each to three notified libraries: Connemara Public Library, Chennai; the Central Library, Mumbai; and Delhi Public Library.
Laws of library science. Ranganathan's Five Laws (1931): Books are for use; Every reader his book; Every book its reader; Save the time of the reader; The library is a growing organism. Implications: first, location, hours and staff attitude; second, selection to fit readers; third, open access, display, added entries; fourth, classified shelving, quick charging (and saving staff time); fifth, growth of books, readers and staff, with adult growth by weeding. Michael Gorman's Five New Laws (1995) and Alireza Noruzi's laws for the Web (2004) restate them.
Librarianship as a profession. Greenwood (1957) listed five attributes of a profession: systematic theory, authority, community sanction, an ethical code and a professional culture. Competences: subject knowledge, knowledge organisation, ICT, services, management, research and communication. Ethics: the ALA Code (first adopted 1939) and the IFLA Code of Ethics for Librarians and other Information Workers (2012) stress equitable access, intellectual freedom, user privacy, respect for intellectual property and neutrality.
Professional associations. Nationally: ILA (Indian Library Association, Kolkata, 1933), IASLIC (Indian Association of Special Libraries and Information Centres, 1955) and IATLIS (Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information Science, 1969). Internationally: ALA (Philadelphia, 1876, now Chicago); SLA (USA, 1909); ASLIB (UK, 1924, founder of the Journal of Documentation); IFLA (Edinburgh, 1927, headquarters The Hague); CILIP (2002, merging the Library Association of 1877 and the Institute of Information Scientists of 1958).
Role of UGC, RRRLF and UNESCO. UGC funds academic libraries, frames librarians' qualifications and LIS curricula (Model Curriculum 2001), and created INFLIBNET (1991, Ahmedabad, now Gandhinagar), which runs Shodhganga, SOUL and consortia (UGC-INFONET 2003, merged into e-ShodhSindhu 2015). RRRLF (1972, Rammohun Roy's birth bicentenary; Ministry of Culture, Kolkata) aids public libraries through matching and non-matching schemes with states. UNESCO (1945, Paris) issued the Public Library Manifesto (1949; revised 1972, 1994 and, with IFLA, 2022) and ran UNISIST (1971) and the General Information Programme (1976).
LIS education in India. Borden's class at Baroda (1911) was the first; Asa Don Dickinson taught at Punjab University, Lahore (1915). The Madras Library Association's school (1929) passed to Madras University (1931); Delhi University opened its department in 1946, and D.B. Krishan Rao earned India's first library science PhD there (1957) under Ranganathan. DRTC Bangalore followed in 1962.
Public relations and extension. PR is a planned, two-way effort to win goodwill and understanding; publicity is one-way and only part of PR. Tools: newsletters, websites, social media, displays and National Library Week (14–20 November in India). Extension takes the library to non-users: exhibitions, book talks, story hours, reading circles and mobile libraries.
Users, user studies and user education. Users are actual or potential. Voigt (1961) found three approaches by scientists: current, everyday and exhaustive (many texts add catching-up). Taylor (1968) named four levels of need: visceral, conscious, formalised, compromised. Seeking models: Belkin's anomalous state of knowledge (ASK); Dervin's sense-making; Ellis (starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, extracting; verifying and ending added later); Kuhlthau's ISP (initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection, presentation; assessment added later). Studies use questionnaires, interviews, observation, logs and citation analysis. User education runs from orientation through bibliographic instruction to information literacy.
Information literacy. Paul Zurkowski coined the term (1974); the ALA Presidential Committee (1989) defined it as recognising a need and locating, evaluating and using information effectively. Standards: ACRL Competency Standards (2000, five standards), replaced by the ACRL Framework (adopted 2016, six frames). Models: Big6 (Eisenberg and Berkowitz: task definition, seeking strategies, location and access, use, synthesis, evaluation); SCONUL Seven Pillars (1999, revised 2011); PLUS (Herring: purpose, location, use, self-evaluation); Empowering 8 (Colombo, 2004). Trends: Prague Declaration (2003), Alexandria Proclamation (2005), media and information literacy, metaliteracy.
Worked example
Auditing a district library against the Five Laws. Step 1, list each finding; step 2, find the law it breaks; step 3, prescribe the fix.
| Finding | Law offended | Remedy |
|---|---|---|
| Closed stacks, books fetched from slips | Third law | Open access and displays |
| Open 10 to 5 on weekdays only | First law | Evening and weekend hours |
| Stock bought from a fixed list, no user survey | Second law | Need-based selection |
| Shelved by accession number, no subject catalogue | Fourth law | Classified shelving, subject catalogue |
| No space planned, no weeding | Fifth law | Expansion plan and weeding |
Step 4, check: closed stacks hide books from readers (third law; open access also serves the first and fourth); a fixed list ignores readers (second law).
Common traps
- PRB Act 1867 sends copies to the State Government; the Delivery of Books Act 1954 sends copies to four public libraries within 30 days.
- Ranganathan's Model Act (1930) was a draft; the first state Act is Madras 1948.
- Second law is reader-centred (every reader his book); third is book-centred (every book its reader).
- CILIP dates from 2002; its predecessor Library Association from 1877. ASLIB is British, SLA American.
- ACRL Standards (2000) have five standards; the Framework (2016) has six frames.
Speed technique
- Association ladder: ALA 1876, LA 1877, SLA 1909, ASLIB 1924, IFLA 1927, ILA 1933, IASLIC 1955, IATLIS 1969, RRRLF 1972, CILIP 2002.
- State Acts in order: Madras 1948, Hyderabad 1955, AP 1960, Mysore 1965, Maharashtra 1967, West Bengal 1979.
- Number cues: Big6 has 6 stages, Seven Pillars 7, Empowering 8 has 8, PLUS 4.
Check yourself
- Under the Delivery of Books Act 1954, how many libraries get a new book, and within what time?
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Four, within 30 days — the National Library plus three notified libraries. - Planning space for expansion and weeding worn stock apply which law?
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The fifth law — the library is a growing organism. - Which committee, chaired by D.P. Chattopadhyaya, drafted a national policy on library and information systems?
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CONPOLIS (1985–86) — the Committee on National Policy on Library and Information System. - Which body was formed in 2002 by merging the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists?
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CILIP — Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, UK. - Which ACRL document replaced the 2000 competency standards, and how many frames does it have?
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Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education; six frames — adopted in 2016.
Try it: Development of Libraries, Legislation and Professional Bodies questions
Real questions from the NET Library Sci. bank on exactly this skill. Pick an answer to see the full solution — the intuition, the worked steps, the faster methods and the traps.
Which of the following is NOT one of Robert Taylor's (1968) four levels of information need?
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Answer: option D
Taylor traced a need from the visceral (unexpressed), through the conscious (an ill-defined mental description) and the formalised (a rational statement), to the compromised (the question as put to the information system).
'Exhaustive' belongs to Voigt's (1961) approaches of scientists to information, not to Taylor's levels.
So the item that is not a Taylor level is the exhaustive need, option D.
A district library buys its entire stock from a fixed government list without ever surveying its users' interests. Which of Ranganathan's laws does this practice chiefly offend?
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Answer: option B
The second law, 'Every reader his book', requires stock to be selected to fit the actual and potential readers the library serves.
Buying from a fixed list without studying users ignores who will read the books, so selection is not need-based.
So the practice chiefly offends the second law, 'Every reader his book', option B.
The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), set up in 1972 and based in Kolkata, functions under the Union:
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Answer: option C
RRRLF was established in 1972, the bicentenary year of Raja Rammohun Roy's birth, to promote and support public libraries across India.
It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture and works with state governments through matching and non-matching schemes.
So RRRLF functions under the Ministry of Culture, option C.
Match the state Public Library Acts in List – I with the years in which they were enacted in List – II and choose the correct answer from the options. List – I (State Act) | List – II (Year) --- | --- (a) Madras Public Libraries Act | (i) 1967 (b) Andhra Pradesh Public Libraries Act | (ii) 1979 (c) Maharashtra Public Libraries Act | (iii) 1960 (d) West Bengal Public Libraries Act | (iv) 1948
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Answer: option D
The Madras Act of 1948 was India's first state Public Library Act (a – iv), and Andhra Pradesh followed in 1960 (b – iii).
Maharashtra enacted its Act in 1967 (c – i) and West Bengal in 1979 (d – ii).
So matching List I, from "Madras Public Libraries Act", gives a – iv, b – iii, c – i, d – ii, option D.
Arrange the following milestones in Indian library education in chronological order, from earliest to latest: I. W.A. Borden starts a library training class at Baroda II. DRTC is set up at Bangalore III. Delhi University opens its department of library science IV. The Madras Library Association starts its library school Choose the correct answer from the options.
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Answer: option C
Borden's class at Baroda (1911) was India's first library training programme, and the Madras Library Association's school followed in 1929.
Delhi University opened its department in 1946, and DRTC Bangalore was set up in 1962.
So the order 1911, 1929, 1946, 1962 is I, IV, III, II, option C.
Answer above — every one shows its working.