"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas--a place where history comes to life." ~ Norman Cousins
Born on this day in Adams Center, New York, librarian Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey (1851-1931) changed his name to Melvil and was 21 years old when he invented the famous decimal system of library book classification that bears his name.
The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system groups books by topic, then divides them into ten classes of subject (000-999), which are then further subdivided. Every library book is given a unique call number to serve as an address for locating the book on the shelf. The system classifications are:
000 Generalities
100 Philosophy and Psychology
300 Social Science
400 Language
500 Natural Science and Mathematics
600 Technology (Applied Sciences)
700 Arts
800 Literature
In 1876, Dewey founded the American Library Association to improve library and information services and published the first Library Journal. Eleven years later, he established the first professional library school at Columbia University.
"A great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and above all, a great heart...and I am inclined to think that most of the men who achieve this greatness will be women," the astute Dewey once said.
Your library is your paradise.