Somehow we missed it.

Last Friday, 10th December was Melvil Dewey’s birthday. The man whose name is vaguely familiar, even to non-librarians, was born 159 years ago on that day.

Melvil Dewey

Although I am not a cataloguer, I can very much appreciate the magnitude of what Dewey produced. When visiting OCLC in 2007, I was thrilled to hold and browse a duplicate copy of the 1st edition of DDC and to peruse a digitised copy of a first edition with Dewey’s hand written notes on it – his preparation for the second edition.

We don’t have many legends in librarianship, but here is a key one.  Happy Birthday Melvil – from a very appreciative librarian – thanks for your incredible foresight and your amazing work in bringing order to our collections.