Ranganathan's Documentation in opposition to European Documentation: a position based on Library Science

Abstract

The European discourse of Documentation was shaped without significant opposition, with the exception of Ranganathan's critique. He opposed the idea that there was a need for a new field, instead placing Documentation within the scope of Library Science. With the aim of contributing to the epistemological debate in Library and Information Science, this article presents the contrast between Ranganathan's discourse and that of European Documentation, highlighting the defence that Ranganathan made of the theoretical space of Library Science. We conductacontrastive reading on the works Traité de Documentation by Otlet, Documentation by Bradford, and Qu'est-ce que la documentation? by Briet, to delineate the European discourse, and Documentation: Genesis and Development by Ranganathan. Our analysis identifies the common ground between the discourses based on their subjects, objects, and processes, and finds that there are more similarities than differences between the discourses, this supports Ranganathan's criticism that Documentation is not a separate discipline but rather a practice within Library Science. We conclude that the Indian librarian made a strong defence of the epistemological space of Library Science.