The best known of all schemes for the classification of documents in libraries is the Dewey Decimal Classification, devised by Melvil Dewey in 1873 and published in 1876. Apart from being the first modern classification scheme for libraries, the Dewey system embodies two of Dewey’s many contributions to the theory and practice of librarianship. First, he recognized that a systematic arrangement of books on shelves should make sense to the users; his scheme therefore reflected the dominant pattern of current thinking, exemplified by the “classificatory sciences.” And second, he used decimals as notation symbols, which illustrated the way in which ...(100 of 18999 words)