Dewey Decimal System   Tags: dewey, library  

Hello and welcome to the Guide about Dewey Decimal Classification system, the world's most popular library classification system created by Melvil Dewey. Enjoy the reading and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

History

Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) System was a brainchild of Melvil Dewey, who originated it in 1873 and received a patent for it in 1876. Dewey came up with the system of classifying books in their relative order based on disciplines, rather than in an alphabetical order, or any other order that simply identifies books on a shelf space. This classification system based on disciplines enabled libraries to place books in stacks in their relationship to one another, placing books in the same disciplines in the same area, which now seems a logical thing to do, however that was not always the case. DDC was the first modern library system that introduced concepts like relative indexes and relative locations. Over its 100+ years of existence, the DDC has gone thru many revisions, to adopt to the changing times and to take into account new subjects, disciplines, etc.

Today, Dewey Decimal Classification System is the most widely used library classification systems in the world. In the US 95%+ of public and school libraries and 25%+ of academic libraries. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) owns the rights to and maintains the DDC. OCLC became the owner of of DDC when they acquired the publisher Forrest Press, in 1998.