American librarian Melville Dewey, known worldwide for his invention of the Dewey Decimal System, was born today in 1851.
A quirky fellow, Dewey began his librarian career at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He soon discovered that books were being cataloged and shelved in date order, which made finding a particular book very difficult. This inefficiency drove Dewey crazy, so he decided to find a better solution.
After speaking with librarians all over the country, he came up with the idea of using decimals to classify books. In his system, books would be arranged by subject area to make them easier to find. The decimals were used because they allowed for future expansion or revision of a subject area. He convinced Amherst College to let him re-classify its library, and, as they say, the rest is history.
So today we celebrate Dewey and his decimals. The classification system may be over 125 years old, but it is still used in the majority of public and school libraries throughout the world.
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