India celebrates National Librarian’s Day on 12 August every year to mark the birth anniversary of Dr S R Ranganathan who is known as the father of library science in India. Dr Ranganthan was a mathematics graduate who was not initially trained as a librarian, but in 1924 he was appointed as librarian by the University of Madras. He subsequently travelled to London to study library science and returned with a mission to modernize and expand library access, and transform libraries into user-focussed spaces. Towards this he created the Colon Classification system.
While Dr Ranganathan is revered and celebrated, not much is known about another librarian who travelled half-way across the world, and contributed to India’s library movement with missionary zeal.
William Alanson Borden, was born in America in 1853. He got a degree in science but his passion for books led him to join a subscription-based library managed by Charles Cutter who was an innovator in library science. Borden went on to join many other libraries, learning on the job, even as he came up with innovative ideas about library organization, not only in terms of books, but also reader convenience.
A serendipitous meeting with Maharaja Sayajirao III of Baroda brought Borden to Baroda. The Maharaja was a progressive ruler of what was then the feudal state of Baroda. He had introduced several measures which were well ahead of their time including compulsory education for girls. As early as 1906 he proposed a network of circulating libraries to promote the habit of reading. Sayajirao’s administration also provided assistance to the subscription-based libraries started by Motibhai Amin, a noted educationist and librarian.
During the course of his visit to the United States, Sayajirao was deeply impressed by the public libraries in the United States. He also happened to meet William Borden, and, impressed by his vision and passion invited him to Baroda to create and direct a free public library system for the people of his state. Borden accepted his invitation, and came to Baroda in late 1910.
Borden was driven by the desire to make libraries accessible to a wide audience, and with the Maharaja’s patronage, he tried to make their common dream a reality. He introduced a system of “library cooperation”, under which the existing 241 libraries were linked in a network via his cataloguing system. This gave readers across the network – including at the district, town and village level – access to the cumulative collection of 10 lakh books, which included Sayajirao’s personal collection of over 20,000 books from the palace library.
With the Maharaja’s support, and Borden’s vision, there were significant developments. A permanent space was commissioned for the Baroda Central Library. Reference sections were added to the Central and the district libraries, and an information bureau set up. Apart from this, travelling libraries on bullock carts, which had already been initiated, were given a boost with Borden’s interlinked system.
The setting up of reading rooms for women and children was an innovative measure. In Baroda city, a female librarian began taking books in ‘library boxes’ to a ladies’ club that had been meeting in a park Sayaji Baug, every Saturday since 1903. The Mahila Library, as it came to be called, was made a part of the Central Library in August 1914. To attract children to the Central Library, Borden brought a cinemascope from London, and lantern slides and films were shown.
Borden also designed a training programme for librarians, mainly in Gujarati. The comprehensive course taught pupils how to test paper quality, collate books, catalogue them and use the card system. Lessons in cursive penmanship were also given, as Borden was especially keen that librarians fill in catalogue cards neatly.
By the end of Borden’s first year in Baroda state, there were nine town libraries, 60 newsrooms and 255 village libraries. All these were free for readers and sustained by the administration with mostly government funds. Borden however was of the opinion that there should be subscriptions for the use of the library, as this would instill a sense of ownership and involvement among members.
Borden could achieve a great deal in his three years in Baroda. By the time Borden left Baroda on May 15, 1913, Baroda city had its Central Library, comprising Reference and Lending Departments with a book stock of 40,000 volumes; thirty six of the thirty eight towns had established their own libraries. Two hundred and sixteen of the four hundred and twenty-six large villages had founded their libraries. Even the small villages had come forward and had initiated their own libraries. There were 140 travelling libraries as well.
After Borden returned to the United States, he continued his interest in library engineering; among other things, he designed a “cantilever library stacking system” with moveable shelves and a flexible library card shelving system that remains in use. He also contributed to library science with the development of a Classification System which divides knowledge into 26 basic classes, each identified by a letter, similar to the Library of Congress System, developed during the same time-period. Classes are further subdivided with numbers to indicate subfields. The system became recognized as the Borden Classification System which is unique because it has the ability to expand as knowledge develops and subfields come to light.
Borden was a multifaceted librarian who contributed to both the theory and practice of library science and use. Above all his lifelong commitment was to popularize libraries as far and widely as possible. As he wrote in 1912: Give them [the readers] books. Not the books you think they ought to have…give them the books they want to read. What you want to see is not a cupboard filled with soul-convincing titles, but a reading public. The finest library in the world is a room full of empty shelves, with the books out among the people. Build up the reading habit first and a habit can’t be built in a day, nor in a year; after this foundation is well started you may gradually and slowly erect your superstructure; but don’t start to build your house at the second storey.”
–Mamata
Millennial Matriarchs 