It's Dewey Day

December 10 is National Dewey Decimal System Day because Melvil Dewey was born on December 10, 1851, in Adams Center, New York. He became a noted educator, librarian, and created the Dewey Decimal System of organizing books. He served as the head librarian at Columbia University before becoming the director of the New York State Library in 1888, but he had a tendency to become embroiled in controversy.

He created the Dewey Decimal System, for which he is most noted, in his first job directly out of college. Amherst hired him to manage its library and rearrange the collections there. Dewey used Sir Francis Bacon's method of assigning components decimal numbers. He copyrighted his system in 1876, and over time, it became widely used. He also did other work in the field, including establishing traveling libraries.

As both an avid reader and writer, I have long appreciated libraries, and all the libraries I have used except two used the Dewey Decimal system. I volunteered as a student assistant in the library in middle school and worked in the library part time when I was in college. In my opinion, Dewy's system is still the easiest for patron's to use. So, I will gladly celebrate National Dewey Decimal Day. What about with a good book?

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