What was Dewey Doing?

Many of you have some knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System, but do you know who came up with the system? In the library world, we have many reasons to be thankful for Melvil Dewey.

Mr. Dewey was born in the hamlet of Adams Center, New York in 1851. For those of you who didn't grow up in another hamlet, not far from Adams Center, like I did, more information might be necessary. Adams Center is located in Jefferson County, which borders Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in northern New York State. Adams Center is about ten miles south of Watertown, the largest city in the county. It was reported in Melvil's obituary that he walked to Watertown to purchase his first dictionary.

From his humble beginnings, however, Melvil Dewey went on to Amherst College, where he received both bachelor and masters degrees. It was while working in the college library that he came up with his decimal system of classifying books. This system uses numbers to divide all subjects into ten main classifications. Those ten sections are further broken down into subject areas that are represented by decimals. Although subjects have changed over the last 130 years, Dewey's system has accommodated those changes. He may have never forseen computers, but they were able to fit nicely into 000-099. Take a look in the 100's for philosophy, 200's are religion, 300's social sciences, 400's language, 500's pure sciences, 600's technology and applied sciences, 700's the arts, 800's literature and 900's geography and history. Since most public libraries use Melvil's system, you can be assured of finding what you are looking for whatever library you visit.

Mr. Dewey didn't stop with his decimal system, however. He went on to establish the first library science school and found the American Library Association and the Library Journal. He was even on the organizing committee for the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1932. Unfortunately, he died in December of 1931, but not before accomplishing much in his 80 years.