Melvil Dewey

Melvil Dewey ( born December 10, 1851 Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey in Adams Center, New York, † December 26, 1931 in Lake Placid, NY) led the eponymous Dewey Decimal Classification A, a system for classification in libraries.

As a student at Amherst College, he developed the Dewey Decimal Classification. Together with his friend, the librarian Charles Cutter, he founded the American Library Association ( ALA). Both men gave talks on the first ALA Conference 1876 in Boston. Dewey was secretary from 1876 to 1890 and from then until 1893 President of the ALA.

He worked as a spelling reformer of the English language and is for example responsible for the American spelling Catalog ( the British spelling remains in Catalogue). Dewey changed his own name from Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey simplistic in Melvil Dui.

1883 Dewey became librarian at Columbia University in New York City, where in 1887 he founded the first library school. He was also co-founder, editor and writer for the magazine Library Journal, for which he wrote numerous articles. He founded the addition, the " Library Bureau ," a company for marketing of library materials.

On December 26, 1931, he died of a stroke. Because of its services relating to standardization of librarianship Dewey was inducted into the "Hall of Fame " of the ALA.