In the April 2005 issue of Library Journal there is an article that discusses digital libraries in the context of Ranganathan’s laws. Michèle Cloonan and John Dove, in Ranganathan Online, specifically address the third law—every book, its reader—and give insights on the question, “Do digital libraries violate the Third Law?”

They write, “While Google was not originally designed as a library resource, it is now so prevalent in libraries that we must test whether it measures up to the principles of librarianship.”

In the section “the semantic web,” they state, “The third law is violated when valuable resources that would truly delight the reader are effectively hidden away or crowded out by the noise and onslaught of irrelevant data.” In this section they have prepared a chart of Ranganathan’s laws and in the third column they relate the laws to digital resources. A second chart gives examples of abiding or not abiding by the third law. For example, they believe that failing to install MARC records for all electronic resources is breaking the third Ranganathan law.

[Via Library Link of the Day]

p.s.
In SJSU SLIS Libarary 204, my professor, Prof. Dowlin [who inspired me starting this Web log], stressed making connections. In fact, grades were based on how well one made connections. This article makes connections. I rate this a must read for library school students.