The art and science of classification: Phyllis Allen Richmond, 1921-1997

Library Trends, Spring, 2004 by Kathryn La Barre

That Shera and Ranganathan enjoyed a long and close association is indicated by the fragments of correspondence that survive. In 1959 Shera invited Ranganathan to join American Documentation's board of editors (Shera, 1959, p. ii). In 1964 Ranganathan invited Shera to become a member of the board of Annals of Library Science. (12) and in 1970 invited him to give a series of lectures at the Documentation Research and Training Center (DRTC) in Bangalore (Shera, 1970). (13) Undoubtedly this association also served to cement Shera's support of the fledgling CRSG, headed by Richmond and Atherton, due in no small part to Ranganathan's description of his own Library Circle:

   One informal voluntary organization which has been set up at
   my end which can both absorb what you radiate and radiate to you
   something substantial from this end, is the Library Research
   Circle. It has no rules except that, when we meet, all our thought
   should be turned on Library Science.... The only subscription is
   four or five hours of time to be given on Sunday afternoons for
   joint pursuit.... The object of our Circle is to promote
   "team-work-in-series" in doing research in Library Science. (14)

In late 1958 Richmond posted an announcement in Library Resources and Technical Services:

   Feeling that classification, particularly as applied to
   documentation, is growing in importance; a group for discussion
   and research on the subject is being formed. Such a group has
   been active in England for some time. Those interested in
   joining should contact Dr. Phyllis Richmond, University of
   Rochester Library, Rochester 20, New York." (Richmond, 1958b,
   p. 236)

One of the first respondents was Pauline Atherton (now Pauline Atherton Cochrane) and thus began a lifelong friendship between the two women as they provided integral leadership to the fledgling CRSG (Cochrane, 2001/2002, pp. 32-36). At the time Cochrane was the assistant director of the Documentation Research Project at the American Institute of Physics (Wheeler, 2000, p. 200). Other respondents included Benjamin Custer, editor of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC); Ralph Shaw, then a professor at Rutgers University; and Werner Ellinger, then senior subject cataloger at the Library of Congress. (15)

In a 1959 editorial in American Documentation, Shera's pride in the fledgling CRSG is evident:

   We have expressed our great admiration, not entirely tinged with
   envy, for the excellence of the work of the Classification
   Research Study [sic] Group in the United Kingdom. Therefore we
   are particularly pleased to be able to report that, almost
   single-handedly, Mrs. Phyllis A. Richmond of the University of
   Rochester Library has brought together over fifty kinspirits ...
   interested in advancing the study of classification (Shera, 1959,
   p. ii).

As 1959 came to a close, Richmond spearheaded an effort to create a reading list in classification theory that would "serve as an introduction to the recent literature of classification research ... it is hoped that a closer acquaintance ... may inspire 'or goad' readers into developing original ideas of their own" (Richmond, 1959, p. 1). Shera, after reviewing a draft copy of the list, made the following recommendation "Shouldn't you include Ranganathan on the reading list?" (16) Richmond continued to add to the CRSG reading list over the years because she observed that "so much interest has been shown in classification during the last decade that it seems very unlikely that the two most recent great systematizers, Bliss and Ranganathan, have said the last word for the twentieth century in this field" (Richmond, 1970d, p. 1). This list included publications of CRG and CRSG members and served to highlight related work in cognate areas such as psychology, communication, and system analysis (Richmond, 1970d). Members of the CRSG also oversaw the creation of the CRSG traveling loan collection, which was housed at WRU within the Special Libraries Loan Collection and today resides at the University of Toronto. (17)