Melvil Dewey

With no relation to Hewey and Louie, Melville Dewey created one of the better known organizational systems still taught to this day. If you didn’t know, or haven’t yet guessed it, we’re talking about the Dewey Decimal System.

Celebrating Dewey’s 160th birthday today, January the 10th, it is important to remember how Melvil Dewey has shaped the world into what it is today. Besides creating a classification system that is used in libraries, both public and private, nationwide, Melvil Dewey was an innovator and a volunteer. Dewey helped found the Lake Placid Club, dedicated to the teaching of proper spelling. Also, he independently founded a private company: the Library Bureau, dedicated to the furnishing of equipment and supplies available to libraries to better serve the purpose of widespread reliability.

However, Melvil Dewey accomplished far more in his life than even he knew himself. That accomplishment, of course, is the internet. The way things are classified online is mildly comparable to the structure of the infamous Dewey Decimal System. One might say the internet would not be what it is today if not for the meticulous upbringing of paper classifications. Though the Dewey Decimal System is not the basis of all paperless classifications, is has helped a great deal in evolving our current technologies.

Even before Amazon existed, and before you could attend school online, Melvil Dewey was working to thrust our world forward; into what it is today.