Historical addressThe Subject Map of a Congregational Collection

Before this system spread, many libraries in the United States used fixed positioning. Each book kept a permanent shelf position based on height and date of acquisition, and stacks were generally closed to all but the most privileged patrons. The Dewey Decimal Classification, colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, took another path. It is a proprietary library classification system that organizes books based on discipline and subject. It uses the concepts of relative location and relative index. A library assigns a classification number that unambiguously locates a particular volume in a position relative to other books in the library, on the basis of its subject. The number makes it possible to find any book and to return it to its proper place on the shelves. For a small congregation, that idea matters more than any single number. When your VBS kits, study guides and mission biographies sit with their neighbors by topic, a Sunday volunteer can browse and reshelve with confidence. You can learn the same habit taught in Cataloging Basics for Congregational Resource Shelves and keep new gifts from piling up by arrival date.

Melvil Dewey lived from 1851 to 1931 and worked as an American librarian and self-declared reformer. He was a founding member of the American Library Association and can be credited with the promotion of card systems in libraries and business. He developed the ideas for his library classification system in 1873 while working at the Amherst College library. He applied the classification to the books in that library until he had a first version in 1876. In 1876, he published the classification in pamphlet form with the title A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library. Amherst College authorized 50 copies for the first version. The edition was 44 pages in length, with 2,000 index entries, and was printed in 200 copies. In March 1876, he applied for and received copyright on the first edition of the index. His system was mentioned in an article in the first issue of the Library Journal and in an article by Dewey in the Department of Education publication Public Libraries in America in 1876.

The second edition appeared in 1885 and showed how fast the plan grew. It comprised 314 pages, with 10,000 index entries, and 500 copies were produced. Editions 3 through 14, published between 1888 and 1942, used a variant of the same title. Dewey said in the introduction to the second edition that nearly 100 persons had contributed criticisms and suggestions. In the next decade, three editions followed closely: the 3rd in 1888, the 4th in 1891 and the 5th in 1894. Editions 6 through 11 were published from 1899 to 1922. The 6th edition was published in a record 7,600 copies. By edition 12 the volume had swelled to 1,243 pages, an increase of 25 percent over the previous edition. The work was originally described in a 44-page pamphlet and has been expanded to multiple volumes and revised through 23 major editions, the latest printed in 2011. It is also available in an abridged version suitable for smaller libraries. That abridged line began in 1894 in response to the needs of smaller libraries that were finding the expanded schedules difficult to use, and an abridged edition has been developed for most full editions since that date.

One innovation was positioning books on the shelves in relation to other books on similar topics. At first that sounded strange because shelf browsing was not considered important when stacks stayed closed. Use of the system increased during the early 20th century as librarians were convinced of the advantages of relative positioning and of open-shelf access for patrons. New editions were readied as supplies of previously published editions were exhausted, even though some editions provided little change from the previous edition, as they were primarily needed to fulfill demand. By popular request, in 1930, the Library of Congress began to print Dewey Classification numbers on nearly all of its cards, thus making the system immediately available to all libraries making use of the Library of Congress card sets. According to a study done in 1927, the system was used in the United States in approximately 96 percent of responding public libraries and 89 percent of the college libraries. As of 2009, the classification system is used in 200,000 libraries in at least 135 countries.

The scheme comprises ten classes, each divided into ten divisions, each having ten sections. The notation uses Indo-Arabic numbers, with three whole numbers making up the main classes and subclasses and decimals designating further divisions. The structure is hierarchical and the notation follows the same hierarchy. Libraries not needing the full level of detail can trim rightmost decimal digits from the class number to obtain more general classifications. From DDC 23, the main classes are 000 for Computer science, information and general works, 100 for Philosophy and psychology, 200 for Religion, 300 for Social sciences, 400 for Language, 500 for Pure science, 600 for Technology, 700 for Arts and recreation, 800 for Literature and 900 for History and geography. That simple frame helps a parish team explain where things live. Put doctrine and congregational life near 200, community and mission background near 300, language resources near 400 and church history near 900. The full Dewey Decimal outline shows how each class divides further. Fiction sits in the 800s in the scheme, although many libraries maintain a separate fiction section shelved in alphabetical order by author surname, a practical choice many parish shelves already follow.

The classification gives one clear example for science. It moves from 500 for natural sciences and mathematics to 510 for mathematics to 516 for geometry to 516.3 for analytic geometries to 516.37 for metric differential geometries to 516.375 for Finsler geometry. Each step adds one idea and keeps the chain visible. The classification was originally enumerative, meaning that it listed all of the classes explicitly in the schedules. Over time it added some aspects of a faceted classification scheme, allowing classifiers to construct a number by combining a class number for a topic with an entry from a separate table. Tables cover commonly used elements such as geographical and temporal aspects, language and bibliographic forms. One constructed example combines 330 for economics with .9 for geographic treatment and .04 for Europe to create 330.94 for European economy. Another combines the class 973 for the United States with .05 for periodical publications to arrive at 973.05 for periodicals concerning the United States generally. The classification also makes use of mnemonics in some areas, such that the number 5 represents Italy in numbers like 945 for history of Italy, 450 for Italian language and 195 for Italian philosophy. Each assigned number consists of two parts: a class number from the Dewey system and a book number, which prevents confusion of different books on the same subject. A common form of the book number is called a Cutter number, which represents the author.

OCLC, a nonprofit cooperative that serves libraries, currently maintains the system and licenses online access to WebDewey, a continuously updated version for catalogers. The first electronic version of Dewey was created in 1993. Hard copy editions continue to be issued at intervals, and the online WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey are updated quarterly. The Online Computer Library Center of Dublin, Ohio, in the United States, acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the system when it bought Forest Press in 1988. OCLC has maintained the classification since 1988 and also publishes new editions. The editorial staff responsible for updates is based partly at the Library of Congress and partly at OCLC. Their work is reviewed by the Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee, a ten-member international board that meets twice each year. The four-volume unabridged edition was published approximately every six years, with the last edition, DDC 23, published in mid 2011. In 2017, the editorial staff announced that the English edition would no longer be printed, in favor of using the frequently updated WebDewey. Dewey himself held copyright in editions 1 to 6 from 1876 to 1919. Copyright in editions 7 through 10 was held by the publisher, The Library Bureau. After the death of May Seymour, Dewey conveyed the copyrights and control of all editions to the Lake Placid Club Educational Foundation, a nonprofit chartered in 1922. May Seymour became editor in 1891 and served until her death in 1921. She was followed by Dorcas Fellows, who was editor until her death in 1938.

Charles Ammi Cutter published the Expansive Classification in 1891, with initial encouragement from Melvil Dewey. The Cutter system was not adopted by many libraries, with one major exception: it was used as the basis for the Library of Congress Classification system. By the 14th edition in 1942, the Dewey index was over 1,900 pages in length and was published in two volumes. Growth led to criticism from medium and large libraries that were too large to use the abridged edition but found the full classification overwhelming. Dewey had intended three editions: the library edition, the bibliographic edition in English and French for bibliographies rather than books on the shelf, and the abridged edition. In 1933, the bibliographic edition became the Universal Decimal Classification, which left the library and abridged versions as the formal editions. The roots of that split go back to 1895, when the International Institute of Bibliography, located in Belgium and led by Paul Otlet, contacted Dewey about the possibility of translating the classification into French and using the system for bibliographies as opposed to its use for books in libraries. Dewey gave permission for a version intended for bibliographies, and also for its translation into French. Dewey did not agree to allow the Institute to later create an English version, considering it a violation of their agreement, as well as a violation of copyright. Shortly after Dewey's death in 1931, an agreement was reached and the English version was published as the Universal Decimal Classification and is still in use today. The 15th edition, edited by Milton Ferguson, reduced the system from 1,900 to 700 pages for the majority of general libraries. The 16th and 17th editions, under the editorship of the Library of Congress, grew again to two volumes. By then, the Dewey system had established itself as a classification for general libraries, with the Library of Congress Classification having gained acceptance for large research libraries.

You do not need the full four volumes to bring order to a crowded cupboard. A single-volume abridged edition designed for libraries with 20,000 titles or fewer has been made available since 1895, and the last printed English abridged edition, Abridged Edition 15, was published in early 2012. Review your Bible studies with How Small Churches Evaluate Bible Study Curricula, then sort what you keep into the ten classes above and trim decimals where detail does not help a volunteer. Keep the author mark beside the class number so two studies on the same topic do not mix. Label the shelf end, file VBS kits by age group under the same broad class, and test the order by asking a helper to find one study and return it to its proper place.