I wish to join everyone in mourning the demise of Sri S Parthasarathy, past
Director of INSDOC.
I thank Dr Raghavan for a detailed note on this legendary figure. He
touched thousands of librarians by his thoughtful deeds. I am one among
them. May his soul rest in peace.
Dr P Vyasamoorthy
30 Gruhalakshmi colony Secunderabad 500015
Plus Code: FG53+54 Secunderabad, Telangana
9490804278
On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 at 23:08, Francis Jayakanth
From: K.S. Raghavan ksragav@hotmail.com
The members of the Boards of Trustees of the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science and the Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies (Chennai) regret to announce the passing of Prof. S. Parthasarathy, Former Head of INSDOC (CSIR). The end came on 12th April 2021, just a few months before his 104th birthday. A direct disciple and a close associate of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, Prof. Srirangapattanam Parthasarathy was born on 23rd August 1917. He had his higher education at the University of Madras and University of Chicago. Before joining CSIR, Prof. Parthasarathy worked in the Delhi University Library and also taught as a Lecturer in the Department of Library Science of the University of Delhi. At INSDOC he was responsible for several innovative services and programmes including the INSDOC List and the Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials. He was also closely associated with the training programme of INSDOC leading to Associateship in Documentation. Prof. Parthasarathy was one of the key persons in organizing the FID / CR 3rd International Conference on Classification Research (held at BARC, Mumbai) in January 1975. He was also instrumental in setting up the documentation subcommittee of the Indian Standards Institution (now, Bureau of Indian Standards) and served as a member of the committee for many years. Several library / documentation related standards have been prepared by the committee. Prof. Parthasarathy was also a member of the UGC Review Committee on library science education in India (The report of the committee published under the title ‘Library Science in Indian Universities’ served as a model and framework for LIS education programmes in the country for several years). He was also a member of the UGC Committee on University libraries, which suggested standards for university libraries. Prof. Parthasarathy was active in several committees of the FID. He served as a member of the FID Committee on Developing Countries and also as a FID Council Member (1970-75). He also served as an expert / consultant in Africa to international organizations including UNIDO. He was an expert member in Documentation at the Industrial Development Centre for Arab States, Cairo. Prof. Parthasarathy was also one of the members of the Advisory Committee set up by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) of the Government of India for preparing the blueprint for NISSAT.
After his retirement from INSDOC. Prof. Parthasarathy served as an Honorary professor at DRTC, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore for some time. He moved to Chennai in 1977 and remained active till the very end. He was an active member of the Madras Library Association and was the guiding force in organizing several programmes under its banner including the All India Library Conference of ILA (1991) held in Chennai in the birth centenary year of Dr. Ranganathan of which he was the Director. He was also one of the key persons in the organization of the 2nd International ISKO Conference held in Chennai in 1992. He played an important role in the creation of the documentary on S. R. Ranganathan (brought out by the Madras Library Association in 1992 as part of the birth centenary celebrations of Dr. Ranganathan). He was one of the founder trustee of the Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies (Founded by Bharat Ratna Sri C. Subramanian in association with Prof. M. S. Swaminathan, Prof. M. Anandakrishnan, Prof. A. Neelameghan and others). Prof. Parthasarathy had also been a long-time trustee of the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science and has been instrumental in organizing many of its activities including the ISKO International Conference held in the University of Mysore in 2012 and SRR@125: Revisiting Ranganathan: An International Conference held at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2017.
Prof Parthasarathy was actively involved in planning and implementing higher education programmes. He was one of the members of the Board of Management of the MOP Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai and took keen interest in planning the programmes and activities of the College. Even at age 100, he was an avid reader and would regularly visit the American Library, the British Council Library, and the Madras University Library. He was a regular at the conferences of the Indian Library Association and IASLIC. To honour this legend, a festschrift was brought out in 2009 (Library and Information Systems: From Alexandrian Heritage to Social Networking). In his passing the profession has lost a tall leader, a visionary, and a great human being.
K. S. Raghavan
Member-Secretary, Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science
Trustee, Ranganathan Centre for Information Studies
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