He established the decimal classification system used to classify books: Who is Melvil Dewey?

(1851-1931) American librarian. He established the decimal classification system used to classify books. He was born on December 10, 1851, in Adams Center, and died on December 26, 1931, in Lake Placid. His father was a shoemaker. He entered Amherst College in 1870. He worked in the school library for the last two years of his education. Melvil Dewey, who graduated from this school in 1874, continued to work in the school's library for two more years. Dewey went to Boston in 1876 and founded the Library Bureau there.

Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey (December 10, 1851 – December 26, 1931) was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.

He was among the founders of the American Library Association, which was established in the same year. He served as the secretary of this association between 1876-1890 and its president between 1890-1893. In 1876, together with Bowker and Leypoldt, he started publishing a magazine called Library Journal. He became a librarian at Columbia College in 1883. Here he founded the School of Library Economics, the first organization to train librarians in the United States. Melvil Dewey, who left Columbia College in 1888, became director of the New York State Library the same year.

Dewey, who was secretary of the State University of New York from 1889 to 1900, helped found the State Library Association in 1890 and worked there until 1906. While developing his own classification system, Melvil Dewey benefited from W T Harris's studies on this subject. In Dewey's system, the information in the library is divided into 10 groups according to the decimal system. There are 100 numbers in each group. For example, numbers in the 200s indicate the religion group and numbers in the 700s indicate the art group. Each group is divided into 10 subgroups. For example, the Christian Church numbers 260.

Melvil Dewey made an effort to have the classification system accepted in Anglo-Saxon countries and completely reorganized the New York State Library, making it one of the most effective libraries in the USA. On the other hand, Dewey established a system of mobile libraries and photographic collections. Dewey's classification system is still used today.