Melvil Dewey
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Melvil Dewey (December 10, 1851 – December 26, 1931) was the inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification system for library classification.
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[edit] Life
Dewey was born as Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey in Adams Center, New York in the United States. He attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He graduated in 1874 with a bachelor's degree and received a master's degree from Amherst in 1877. It was while working as an assistant librarian at Amherst from 1874 until 1877 that Dewey devised his system of classifying and cataloguing books by decimal numbers.
He moved to Boston where he created and edited New Ross Standard, which became an influential factor in the development of libraries in America, and in the reform of their administration. While in Boston, he founded Library Bureau library supply company in 1876. Library Bureau is still in operation today and is located in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
With his friend and fellow librarian Charles Ammi Cutter, he helped found the American Library Association (ALA); both men spoke at the First Annual ALA Conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1876.
In 1884 he founded the Columbia School of Library Economy, the first institution organized in the United States for the instruction of librarians. This school, which was very successful, was moved to Albany, New York in 1890, where it was re-established as the New York State Library School under his direction. From 1888 to 1906 he was director of the New York State Library and from 1888 to 1900 was secretary of the University of the State of New York, completely reorganizing the state library and making it one of the most efficient in America, as well as establishing the system of state travelling libraries and picture collections. In 1890 he helped to found the first state library association — the New York Library Association (NYLA) — of which he was the first president, from 1890 to 1892.
He was an advocate of English language spelling reform and is responsible for, among other things, the "American" spelling of the word Catalog (as opposed to the British Catalogue). He considered changing his own name to simply Melvil Dui.[1] He also sponsored periodicals on the Ro constructed language, in which the word structure marked its meaning in a hierarchy of categories.
Late in his life Dewey helped found the Lake Placid Club as a health resort. His theories of spelling reform 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 Olympics there. He also was a founder of the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation in 1922. Under his leadership the Northwood School (Lake Placid, New York) prospered. He was also a founder of the Adirondack Music Festival in 1925, and served as a trustee of the Chautauqua Institution.
In 1926 he established a southern branch of the Lake Placid Club in Florida. Dewey was the proponent of Lake Stearns in Florida formally changing its name to Lake Placid, Florida.
While he is remembered for his Dewey Decimal System, Dewey's personal views might be considered racist and sexist today. Even in his own day, his career as New York State Librarian was negatively affected by the anti-Semitic policies of the Lake Placid Club (Wiegand 1996:280; Garrison 1983:42); his role in the ALA was curtailed by his overly familiar attention to women (Wiegand 1996:340).[citation needed]
Melvil Dewey is also known for the creation of hanging vertical files which first premiered at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.[1]
[edit] Hall of Fame
Dewey is a member of the American Library Association's Hall of Fame.
[edit] External links
- Children of the Code - Dewey on Spelling Reform (including online video excerpts)
- Works by Melvil Dewey at Project Gutenberg
- What's so great about the Dewey Decimal System?—contains biographical information
- The New York Times, "Melvil Dewey dead in Florida", December 27, 1931.
[edit] References
- Library Bureau, (2008). Our Legacy [Online]. Available: http://www.librarybureau.com/aboutlegacy.html [accessed 14 April 2008]
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Dawe, George Grosvenor. Melvil Dewey, Seer: Inspirer: Doer, 1851–1931. Lake Placid Club, N.Y.: Melvil Dewey Biografy, 1932.
- Garrison, Dee. Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876–1920. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. ISBN 0-299-18114-6.
- Wiegand, Wayne A. Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey. Chicago: American Library Association, 1996. ISBN 0-8389-0680-X.
- ^ Larson, Erik. (2003) Devil in the White City.
