Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey, the youngest of five children, was born on December 10, 1851 to a poor family living in a small town in northern New York. As a child, he felt drawn to mathmatics and enjoyed playing around with classification systems at a young age. Being from an impovrished household, Melville's family could not afford to mold his intelligence and send him to college. He waited until he was nineteen to attend Amherst College. Like many college students today, Melville worked in the college library to help fund his education. His affinity to the job enabled him to remain as a librarian upon graduation in 1874. Following graduation, Melville worked towards improving library classificaiton systems.

In Melville's day, classification systems used a fixed design where each book was given a dedicted spot on the shelf. This proved to be impractical as the books and shelves had to be reclassified with each addition to the collection. Another problem was that no two libraries used the same system, thus making it difficult for patrons and librarians to use different collections. Frustrated with these problems, Dewey searched for a way to classify books rather than fixed locations and enable libraries to use the same system. Dewey devised a system of arabic numbers and decimals to catagorize books according to subject. He received permission from Amherst to apply his new system to their library. Amherst published his system in a pamphlet entitled A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library which is now in its 21st edition and contained in four volumes.

In 1876, Dewey left Amherst and moved to Boston where he founded the Library Bureau. This library supply company was founded "for the definite purpose of furnishing libraries with equipment and supplies of unvarying correctness and reliability." He also was a founding member of the American Library Association where he served such offices as secretary and president. In 1883 he became a librarian at Columbia College and started a library school. His last professional library position was that of the director of the New York State library until his negative views of minorities forced him to leave.

Continuing his classification of libraries, Dewey appealed to congress concerning the reorganizaton of the Library of Congress. He wanted it to be expanded as a national library serving as a centerpoint to which other libraries could refer.

In 1894, Dewey and his wife started an exclusive resort in upstate New York. A main problem of the club was that they did not admit anyone that other members found objectional. Minorities such as jews were not allowed. In 1905, several prominant Jews demanded Dewey's dismissal, and he resigned a few months later. Dewey's wife died in 1922 and he remarried several years later. He retired to Florida and continued to involve himself in librarianship. Both he and his wife became involved in real estate and developed many retirement resorts in New York and Florida. After retiring in Florida, Dewey died from a cerebal hemorrage or a stroke on December 26, 1931.

1876: Published the Dewey Decimal classification system.
1876: Organized the first conference for librarians in Philadelphia which gave birth to the ALA.
1876: Was an original founders of the American Library Journal and served as the managing editor until 1881.
1885: Founded the New York Library Club.
1886: Founded the Spelling Reform Association.
1890: Elected President of ALA. Elected again in 1892.
1892: Re-elected President.
1897: Was the official delegate of the U.S. Government to the International Library Conference in London.

000 Generalities
100 Philosophy, parapsychology and occultism, psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Natural sciences and mathematics
600 Technology (Applied sciences)
700 The Fine arts and decorative arts
800 Literature (Belles-lettres) and rhetoric
900 Geography, history, and auxiliary disciplines

Dewey Decimal System Home Page
Dewpoint (CyberDewey)
"Do We" Really Know Dewey?
Introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification
Let's Do Dewey!
Library Bureau
Mr. Dui's Topic Finder
The Library Bureau: Melvil Dewey

Chan, Lois Mai, John P. Comaromi, and Mohinder P. Satija. Dewey Decimal Classification: A Practical Guide.