Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey (December 10, 1851 – December 26, 1931) was an American librarian and educator, inventor of the
Dewey DecimalDewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...
system of library classification, and a founder of the
Lake Placid ClubThe Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895 in Lake Placid, New York by Melvil Dewey, and intended as a place where educators might find health, strength and inspiration at modest cost...
.
Education and personal life
Dewey was born in
Adams Center, New YorkAdams Center is a hamlet located in the Town of Adams in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,500 at the 2000 census.- History :...
, the fifth and last child of Joel and Eliza Greene Dewey. He attended rural schools and determined early that his destiny was to be a reformer in educating the masses. At
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
he belonged to
Delta Kappa EpsilonDelta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...
, earning a bachelor's degree in 1874 and a master's in 1877.
While still a student, he founded the Library Bureau which sold high quality index cards and filing cabinets, and established the standard dimensions for catalog cards.
From 1883 to 1888 he was chief librarian at Columbia University, from 1888 to 1906 director of the
New York State LibraryThe New York State Library is part of the New York State Education Department. The Library and its sister institutions, the New York State Museum and New York State Archives, are housed in the Cultural Education Center...
, and from 1888 to 1900 secretary and executive officer of the
University of the State of New YorkThe University of the State of New York is the State of New York's governmental umbrella organization responsible for most institutions and people in any way connected with formal educational functions, public and private, in New York State...
. In 1895 Dewey founded the
Lake Placid ClubThe Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895 in Lake Placid, New York by Melvil Dewey, and intended as a place where educators might find health, strength and inspiration at modest cost...
with his wife Annie. He and his son
GodfreyDr. Godfrey Dewey was the president of the Lake Placid Organizing Committee and was largely responsible for the successful candidature of Lake Placid for the 1932 Winter Olympics. In addition to his role as the U.S. ski team manager he was chosen as the flag bearer for the 1928 Games in St...
had been active in arranging the Winter Olympics which took place at Lake Placid — he was chairman of the New York State Winter Olympics Committee. In 1926 he went to Florida to establish a new branch of the Lake Placid Club. He died in Lake Placid, Florida.
Even Dewey's friends found his personality difficult, and he early in life established a pattern of making powerful enemies.
As one biographer put it, "Although he did not lack friends, they were becoming weary of coming to his defense, so endless a process it had become.”
He was removed from his position as New York State Librarian during a controversy over policies he had instituted at the Lake Placid Club restricting membership based on race and religion.
Another biography refers to Dewey's "old nemesis—a persistent inability to control himself around women" as an ongoing cause of trouble on the job.
Dewey had been married (in turn) to Annie R. Godfrey and Emily McKay Beal He was a member of the
American Library Association's Hall of FameThe Library Hall of Fame is a list of 40 leaders of the modern library movement. The list appeared in the March 15, 1951, issue of Library Journal. That issue of Library Journal celebrated the 75th anniversary of the American Library Association...
.
Work
Dewey was a pioneer of American librarianship and an influential factor in the development of libraries in America in the beginning of the 20th century. He is best known for the decimal classification system that is used in most public and school libraries. But the decimal system was just one of a long list of innovations. Among them was the idea of the state library as controller of school and public library services within a state.
Dewey is also known for the creation of hanging vertical files, which first introduced at the
Columbian ExpositionThe World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
of 1893 in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. In Boston, Massachusetts, he founded the Library Bureau, a private company "for the definite purpose of furnishing libraries with equipment and supplies of unvarying correctness and reliability."
Dewey Decimal Classification
Immediately after receiving his undergraduate degree he was hired to manage Amherst's library and reclassify its collections. Dewey worked out a new scheme that superimposed a system of decimal numbers on a structure of knowledge first outlined by Sir Francis Bacon.
Dewey copyrighted the system in 1876. This system has proved to be enormously influential; though many American libraries have since adopted the classification scheme of the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, Dewey's system remains in widespread use.
American Library Association
In 1877 Dewey moved to Boston, where he founded and became editor of
The Library Journal, which became an influential factor in the development of libraries in America, and in the reform of their administration. He was also one of the founders of the
American Library AssociationThe American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
, of which he was secretary from 1876 to 1891, and president in 1891 and 1893.
School of Library Economy
In 1883 Dewey became librarian of Columbia College, and in the fol lowing year founded there the School of Library Economy, the first institution for the instruction of librarians ever organized. This school, which was very successful, was removed to Albany in 1890, where it was re-established as the State Library School under his direction.
During the period from 1888 to 1906 Dewey was also director of the New York State Library, and until 1900 he was secretary of the University of the State of New York as well. In that function he completely reorganized the state library, making it one of the most efficient in America, as well as established the system of state travelling libraries and picture collections. In 1885, he founded the New York Library Club there.
Metric system advocacy
As an enthusiastic supporter of the
metric systemThe metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
, Dewey established the American Metric Bureau.
Dewey also served once again as its
secretaryA secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
.
Lake Placid Club and spelling reform
Late in his life Dewey helped found the
Lake Placid ClubThe Lake Placid Club was a social and recreation club founded 1895 in Lake Placid, New York by Melvil Dewey, and intended as a place where educators might find health, strength and inspiration at modest cost...
as a health resort. His theories of
spelling reformFor hundreds of years, many groups and individuals have advocated spelling reform for English. Spelling reformers seek to make English spelling more consistent and more phonetic, so that spellings match pronunciations and follow the alphabetic principle....
(to which end he founded the Spelling Reform Association in 1886) found some local success at Lake Placid: there is an "Adirondac Loj" in the area, and dinner menus of the club featured his spelling reform. A September 1927 menu is headed "Simpler spelin" and features dishes like Hadok, Poted beef with noodls, Parsli or Masht potato, Butr, Steamd rys, Letis, and Ys cream. It also advises guests that "All shud see the butiful after-glo on mountains to the east just befor sunset. Fyn vu from Golfhous porch."
Dewey was an early promoter of winter sports in Lake Placid and was active in arranging the
1932 Winter OlympicsThe 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 15. It would be the first winter olympics held in the United...
there. He also was a founder of the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation in 1922. Under his leadership the Northwood School (
Lake Placid, New YorkLake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 2,638....
) prospered. He was also a founder of the Adirondack Music Festival in 1925, and served as a trustee of the
Chautauqua InstitutionThe Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit adult education center and summer resort located on 750 acres in Chautauqua, New York, 17 miles northwest of Jamestown in the western part of New York State...
.
In 1926 he established a southern branch of the Lake Placid Club in
FloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Dewey was the proponent of Lake Stearns in Florida formally changing its name to
Lake Placid, FloridaLake Placid is a town in Highlands County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the town's population as 1,878 on 1 July 2007...
.
Selected publications
- 1876 Classification and subject index for cataloguing and arranging the books and pamphlets of a library. Hartford, Conn.: Case, Lockwood, & Brainard Company (44 pages).
- 1885 Decimal classification and relative index for arranging, cataloguing, and indexing public and private libraries and for pamphlets, clippings, notes, scrap books, index rerums, etc.: Second edition, revised and greatly enlarged. Boston: Library Bureau (314 pages).
- 1886 Librarianship as a profession for college-bred women. An address delivered before the Association of collegiate alumnæ, on March 13, 1886, by Melvil Dewey. Boston: Library Bureau.
- 1887 Library notes: improved methods and labor-savers for librarians, readers and writers. Boston: Library Bureau.
- 1895 Abridged decimal classification and relative index for libraries. Boston: Library Bureau.
- 1898 Simplified library school rules. Boston, London [etc.]: Library Bureau.
- 1889 Libraries as related to the educational work of the state. Albany.
- 1890 Statistics of libraries in the state of New York numbering over 300 volumes. Albany.
- 1894 Library school rules: 1. Card catalog rules; 2. Accession book rules; 3. Shelf list rules.
- 1904 A.L.A. catalog. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Further reading
- George Grosvenor Dawe (1932). Melvil Dewey, Seer: Inspirer: Doer, 1851–1931. Lake Placid Club, N.Y.: Melvil Dewey Biography.
- Wayne A. Wiegand (1996). Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey. Chicago: American Library Association.
External links