Ranganathan and international professional associations

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse Ranganathan’s involvement in international professional associations; specifically, it will look at his contributions within IFLA and the Indian scholar’s activity within FID (Fédération Internationale d’Information et de Documentation). Although Ranganathan’s involvement in IFLA initiatives is mainly related to cataloguing issues, there is no lack of more general reflections on the role the international association should play and its positioning in relation to ‘non-Western’ countries. His participation in FID, on the other hand, is characterised by his active involvement in the creation of FID/CA, FID Committee on Classification Theory.