Janet Myers, age 13, of McAllen, Texas, for her question:
WHO DEVELOPED THE DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM?
Most widely used system of classifying library books is called the Dewey Decimal System. It was developed by an American librarian named Melvil Dewey more than a hundred years ago in 1876. The system makes it easy to locate a book in a card file and then find it on its shelf.
All books are divided into 100 main divisions with this system. Each group then receives a designation of 100 numbers. There are also numbers within each basic number.
A first classification, using numbers 000 through 099, is for generalities and it includes encyclopedias, bibliographies, magazines and newspapers.
Philosophy and related disciplines are classed with numbers 100 through 199.
Mythology and religion use the numbers 200 through 299.
Social sciences use the numbers between 300 and 399. Subjects included here are economics, education, law, sociology, customs and vocations.
Between 400 and 499 are books on language and grammar. Dictionaries are also included.
Pure science is the heading for the numbers between 500 and 599. With this group are such subjects as biology, zoology, mathematics, astronomy physics, geology and chemistry.
Technology comes next, using the numbers between 600 and 699. Here you'll find medicine, aviation, business, agriculture, engineering, television and radio.
The arts, which include architecture, painting, music, sculpture and photography, fall into the classification of 700 to 799.
Literature uses numbers between 800 and 899. Plays, novels and poetry are found in this classification.
The final division uses numbers 900 through 999. Included here are books on history, travel, geography and biography.
Each main class is then divided into 10 subclasses.
After each main class is divided into 10 subclasses, each of these units is further subdivided. As an example, under technology in the 600 classification, you'll find Agriculture listed between 630 and 639 and subdivided further into Field Crops, Garden Crops and Dairy.
When the areas need an even greater division, decimals are used. Useful insects such as bees and silkworms are under 638. Then books on beekeeping are placed in 638.1 and books on silkworms are in 638.2.
The idea was published in a 42 page book by Melvil Dewey in 1879. There have been 19 revisions on his "Decimal Classification and Relative Index," the most recent in 1979.
Some libraries, including the Library of Congress, do not use the Dewey Decimal System. They use their own systems of classification.
Melvil Dewey was the chief librarian at Columbia University. He established the world's first library school there in 1887. Between 1889 and 1906 he was the director of the New York State Library. He died at the age of 80 in 1931.