The encyclopedia · R&D & Science · Technical decision · 1876
Melvil Dewey's decimal scheme won libraries by letting every book be numbered forever.
Dewey's 1876 scheme split knowledge into nine decimal classes so a new topic could always be inserted and shelved in order; it became the library standard.
Melvil Dewey · OCLC
the move
As libraries grew, each chose its own arrangement, so a book found in one library could not be located in another. In 1873 Melvil Dewey, working at Amherst College, began building a system to classify and arrange books.
He published the first edition in 1876: a library divided into nine main classes, each divided again using decimals. Because the decimal point could keep extending, any subject could be split without new categories, and the relative order stayed consistent on the shelf.
The scheme made the catalogue and the shelves match, so a book could be found by a number anywhere the system was used. OCLC has maintained the Dewey Decimal Classification since 1988.
why it works
- Decimals let a scheme expand forever without renumbering
- Relative number equals shelf position, so finding is mechanical
- A book's address is independent of the building or the librarian
- It gave small and large libraries one common shared vocabulary
what transfers
A classification that can always subdivide is open-ended by design; make order a property of the identifier and a growing collection never needs re-shelving.
what came after
The Dewey Decimal Classification became one of the most widely used library systems in the world, and OCLC has maintained and published it since 1988, proof that a good ordering standard can outlive its inventor.
references
- A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library
- DDC timeline
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