The growing organism

A library is a growing organism. This is the fifth law of library science as defined by Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan, a librarian and mathematician who is considered to be the founder of library science. In his seminal work, Five Laws of Library Science, Ranganathan defined core principles for librarianship: (1) books are for use; (2) every person his or her book; (3) every book its reader; (4) save time for the reader; and (5) a library is a growing organism (Ranganathan, 2006). Although originally published in 1931, the work remains largely relevant today, with ‘book’ interpreted as any physical or digital library resource and the ‘growing organism’ as a physical or virtual space.

This book focuses on the physical space as contemplated in Ranganathan's work. The fifth law considers the management of the inevitable growth of physical stock, the fixtures and fittings to contain it, the systems to track it, the reading rooms for the service users and the workspace for the library staff. The library leader of today has the same considerations, with the role of the library and its space continuing to transform in order to meet the evolving demands of users, ranging from access to books, to use of technologies, to keeping warm in cold weather.

Ranganathan's fifth law is non-contentious when funds are available to feed the ‘growing organism’ and allow it to ‘take … in new matter … change in size, and take new shapes and forms’ (Ranganathan, 2006).