Celebrate Dewey Decimal System Day at the Metropolitan Library
He’s most likely not a person you think about every single day but the impact he had on how we find books at our local libraries is still ongoing today and on Dec. 10, you can celebrate Melvil Dewey and his revolutionary system with Dewey Decimal System Day. An American librarian and self-declared reformer, Dewey created the classification system in 1873 while working at the Amherst College library.
The first edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification, its official name, was published in 1876 and was 44 pages in length with 2,000 index entries. When the system was published, most libraries only allowed the most privileged guests access to the stacks, so books were assigned a fixed position on the shelf based on their height and date of acquisition. Dewey’s system was more widely adopted in the early 20th century as libraries saw the importance of patrons having access to stacks themselves and how relative positioning organized the books better, and there’s no better way to celebrate Dewey’s innovation by visiting your local library.
The Metropolitan Library System has 19 libraries across Oklahoma County making them easily accessible for you and your family. Along with checking out books from one of their locations, you can also download and stream eBooks, audiobooks, movies, television, music, magazines and podcasts. The library also holds events for all ages including story time for the littles, book clubs organized by genre and age, and take-home kits that provide you with all the supplies for a craft or science experiment to do at home.
There’s so much more to discover at your local library and celebrating Dewey Decimal Day is a great way to find out for yourself. For more information and to find the closest library to you, visit the Metropolitan Library’s website.
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