author
Melvil Dewey
1851–1931
Best known for creating the Dewey Decimal Classification, he helped shape how libraries organize knowledge and train librarians. His influence on American library science was enormous, even as later generations have taken a harder look at parts of his legacy.
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About the author
Born in Adams Center, New York, in 1851, Melvil Dewey was an American librarian and educator who developed the Dewey Decimal Classification while working at Amherst College. First published in 1876, the system became one of the most widely used methods for organizing library collections and helped make large libraries easier to navigate.
He was also a major institution-builder. Dewey helped found the American Library Association, served as chief librarian at Columbia College, and played a central role in establishing what became Columbia's library school. Britannica also credits him with doing as much as almost anyone to advance library science in the United States.
Today he is remembered both for his practical brilliance and for the scale of his impact on libraries. Modern accounts also note that his reputation is complicated by serious criticism of his personal conduct and attitudes, so his legacy is often discussed as both influential and contested.