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.ht
m
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
520
530
540
550
560
570
580
590
Mathematics
Astronomy & allied sciences
Physics
Chemistry & allied sciences
Earth sciences
Paleontology & paleozoology
Life Sciences
Botanical sciences
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 DDC
Katy 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 (WalMart)
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 continents
Source: 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/mde
weydecimal.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/