Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan is recognized as one of the most important figures in library science, especially for formulating his five laws, which guide the purpose of any library: Books are for use; to every reader their book; to every book its reader; save the time of the reader; the library is a growing organism. Based on these laws, it becomes necessary to reflect on the search for and curation of digital content. It is not enough to simply make publications available in a virtual environment if that space does not meet essential requirements, such as saving the reader’s time, adapting to the community’s needs, and offering truly relevant content.
With this perspective, the Global South Alliance (GSA) and Data Privacy Brasil (currently its Secretariat), in partnership with organizations like CIVICUS and Global Focus, support initiatives such as Connecting Current, where civil society can connect, share information, and generate knowledge through a digital library. More than a mere repository, it is a library grounded in Ranganathan’s laws and collection development methodologies, forming a curated collection built around the demands of users and partners. Today, the Connecting Current platform is undergoing a restructuring process and is currently in its beta version.
The first law, “Books are for use,” gains relevance in the context of Connecting Current when we observe the volume of content produced by various organizations on digital rights and democracy. Frequently, these materials remain restricted to the institutional websites where they originated, running the risk of being scattered as new publications emerge. This connects to the fourth law, “Save the time of the reader,” by structuring a centralized space with curation based on public preferences and library science techniques. Through tools such as controlled vocabularies, standardized keywords are defined for content indexing. This practice fulfills the second and third laws (“To every reader their book; to every book its reader”), making it easier to locate materials aligned with the interests of the community served.
Thus, through the activities carried out at Connecting Current, we are able to encompass the mentioned laws as well as address the challenges surrounding them. By creating this space, we ensure that books are being used; when we build a controlled vocabulary system and evaluate it based on our community, we are improving search engines to save the reader’s time while also guaranteeing their access to this information (“To every reader their book; to every book its reader”).
Finally, the fifth law, “The library is a growing organism,” points to a continuous process of evaluation and refinement. It is based on this premise that the workshop Connecting Communities Through Living Libraries aims to evaluate the Connecting Current platform in comparison to its previous version. The program includes usability validation, search testing, and real-time feedback collection from participants.
The goal is to engage participants with the platform and validate the quality of the collection, ensuring intuitive and direct access to information. The methodology will use a gamified and dynamic approach with quick missions directly on the website. In this way, participants will be able to explore the collection, helping to identify strengths, interface flaws, and new content demands.
Participating in this workshop means contributing to the development of an open, diverse library oriented toward the needs of civil society.
Date: 12/07/2026,
Time: BRT: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM (16h–17h30);
US (ET): 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM (15h às 16h30);
Europe (CET/CEST): 9:00 PM – 10:30 PM (21h às 22h30).
Format: Participatory workshop
Language: Workshop conducted in English
