Dewey Decimal Classification

025.431

History of the Dewey Decimal Classification System

Glen McBeth

Melvil Dewey was the

inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification

system for library

classification.

Born in December 10, 1851 Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey, the youngest

of five children, was born on December 10, 1851, in a small town

in northern New York.

Later he shortened his first name to Melvil, dropped his middle names and, for a short time, even spelled his last name as Dui.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey

He attended and worked at Amherst College, where he was

dismayed at the way books were arranged. At the time,

Amherst had 30,000 books, and users had to look in many

places to find books on the same subject.

The problems at Amherst were typical of the era.

Before Dewey, some libraries organized books by color, size or the order they were received, while others organized the books broadly by general subject.

For example, Thomas Jefferson’s system, used by the Library of Congress and many other libraries, was based on Bacon’s system, which organized all knowledge into just three large divisions: history, poetry, and philosophy.

Dewey saw the need to create a detailed standard

classification system.

He created the Dewy Decimal Classification

system at Amherst between 1874 and 1877.

Dewey went on to become librarian of Columbia College, and founded the Columbia School of Library Economy, the first institution for the instruction of librarians ever organized.

From 1888 to 1906 he was director of the New York State Library which he made one of the most efficient in America.

In 1890 he helped to found the first state library association - the New York Library Association (NYLA) - and he was its first president, from 1890-1892.

How the Dewey Decimal System Works

Cheryl Lane

The Dewey Decimal System• Is a hierarchical

system in which the arrangement of books on the shelves moves from the general to the specific

• http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/fi_books_dd.htm

Ten Main Classes• 000 Generalities• 100 Philosophy• 200 Religion• 300 Social Sciences• 400 Languages• 500 Science• 600 Applied

Science• 700 Arts• 800 Literature• 900 History

Each major category divides into 9 sub-categories

• Example:• 500 Natural Science & Mathematics

– 510 Mathematics– 520 Astronomy & allied sciences– 530 Physics– 540 Chemistry & allied sciences– 550 Earth sciences– 560 Paleontology & paleozoology– 570 Life Sciences– 580 Botanical sciences– 590 Zoological sciences

Each sub-category is divided into 9 specialized topics

• 520 Astronomy– 521 Celestial mechanics– 522 Techniques,

equipment, etc.– 523 Specific celestial

bodies– 524 (Unassigned)– 525 Earth (Astronomical

geography)– 526 Mathematical

geography– 527 Celestial navigation– 528 Ephemeredes– 529 Chronology

By adding decimals, the topics are broken down further

• 523 Specific celestial bodies– 523.3 Moon– 523.4 Planets– 523.5 Meteors, solar

wind, zodiacal light– 523.6 Comets– 523.7 Sun

• 523.71 Constants and dimensions

• 523.72 Physics of• 523.73 Motions• 523.74 Photosphere• 523.75

Chromosphere and corona

• 523.76 Solar interior• 523.77 Eclipses

Uses of the DDCKaty Flott

How is it used?Who uses it?

How could it be used?

Uses of the DDC

How is it used?• To organize a broad range of

information into related subjects• To ease the information retrieval

process• To create a cross-communication

between different fields, professions, and media

Uses of the DDC

Who uses it?

• Most widely used classification system worldwide (200,000 libraries in 135 countries)

• 25% of academic libraries use Dewey• 95% of public and school libraries use

Dewey• http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/tour/

Uses of the DDC

How could it be used?• Model of an organizational system

for young children• Model of an organizational system

for commercial services (Wal-Mart)

• Internet resource organization• http://bubl.ac.uk/

Evaluation&

Interesting Facts

Sheryl Baber Evans

Evaluation of DDC• Praises for the Dewey Decimal Classification

system:– Ease of use

• Children can browse easier in school and public libraries.

• General public users can search for materials in and out of the library setting.

• Teachers can better use and apply age appropriate research skills through the system.

These three websites can make DDC fun:http://www.thrall.org/dewey/ http://www.moorestevie.com/dewey.html http://www.deweybrowse.org/Dewey.html

Evaluation of DDC• Criticism of the Dewey Decimal

Classification system concern biases such as:– Ethnocentric

– No room for diverse cultures

– Religion– Focuses primarily on Christianity

– Geography– Not enough classification space for all continentsSource: Wikipedia (accessed 2/8/06)

Evaluation of DDC cont.

Dewey was man of his time. Based on the limited information he was exposed to he could only build upon what he had access to. The latest in medical standards and technology wasn’t an issue because it did not exist …yet.

He was also particular about what he considered to be ‘worthy knowledge’ in a library.

Interesting Facts about the DDC

“Dewey's contribution to classification was joining together the strong points of systems developed by others, not creating anything new.”

• http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdeweydecimal.html

Interesting Facts Continued• 1873 Dewey discussed the matter with Charles A.

Cutter, director of the Boston Athenaeum. Cutter had developed a classification scheme that Dewey liked.

• A few weeks later, Dewey "blundered on" a pamphlet printed in 1856 by Nathaniel Shurtleff that suggested a decimal arrangement for libraries. But he disliked Shurtleff's approach, which he felt was inefficient.

• Another influence was William F. Poole of the Cincinnati Library, who dared to suggest that fiction was important and needed to be arranged for use.

• Dewey found all these systems had strengths and weaknesses.

• Dewey's innovation was to combine a numbering system (like at the British Museum) with classification by topic. The numbers didn't indicate a shelf but rather a field of knowledge.

Interesting Fact number 2

• DDC has been translated into more than 30 languages.

• http://www.oclc.org/dewey/

Interesting Fact number 3

DDC has evolved as the world of information has evolved, and is regularly updated. The system is now on its 22nd

version.

Local Library Links that use DDC

• http://www.tscpl.org/

• http://library.emporia.edu/