He was born Melville
Louis Kossouth Dewey, in Adams Center, New York on December 10, 1851. But, most
students, teachers and librarians know him as Melvil Dewey--the man who
invented a method of classifying knowledge for the purpose of cataloging books
and other library materials.
From Amhearst College,
Dewey went to Columbia College (later univeristy) and also instituted his book
classification system there. From 1883 to 1888, Dewey was head librarian at
Columbia College, where he also set up the first institution to train
librarians. He was founder of the "Library Journal" and "Library
Notes" periodicals. And, he was one of the founders of the American
Library Association.
