Dewey Main Sections
Main Classes
- 000 Computer science, information & general works
- 100 Philosophy & psychology
- 200 Religion
- 300 Social sciences
- 400 Language
- 500 Science
- 600 Technology
- 700 Arts & recreation
- 800 Literature
- 900 History & geography
Dewey is further divided into 10 branches that are called divisions
Who was Dewey?
Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was born on December 10, 1851 (1851 - 1931).
Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system when he was 21 and working as a student assistant in the library of Amherst College, drawing from Sir Francis Bacon’s classification of knowledge as well as library classification systems designed by William Torrey Harris and Natale Battezzati. Dewey’s promotion of his classification and emphasis on centralization of cataloging efforts set in motion a new era of “library economy.”
Dewey’s role in American librarianship is impossible to ignore, he:
- helped establish the American Library Association (ALA) in 1876;
- co-founded and edited Library Journal
- became the librarian of Columbia College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1883 and founded the world's first library school there in 1887.
Melvil Dewey died after suffering a stroke on 26 December 1931, at age 80. He is best known for creating the most widely used library classification scheme in the world, the Dewey Decimal Classification.
