History of Adams Center, (Jefferson County) New York United States of America

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Melvil Dewey, educationist and librarian, was born in Adams Center, N.Y., Dec. 10, 1851; son of Joel and Eliza (Green) Dewey, and grandson of David Dewey and of Charles Green. He was graduated at Amherst in 1874 and was librarian of the college, 1873-76. In 1876 he removed to Boston, Mass., where he established the American library association of which he was secretary, 1876-91, and president in 1891 and again at the time of the World's congress of librarians in 1893. He also instituted the Library Journal, editing the first five volumes, 1876-1881; the Metric bureau organized for the purpose of securing the adoption of the international decimal weights and measures; and the Spelling reform association. He served from the first as permanent secretary of both associations. He also organized the Library bureau as a business enterprise in connection with the Library Journal and was its manager till May, 1883, when he went to New York as chief librarian of Columbia college, serving 1883-89. He was appointed professor of library economy in 1884 and director of the Columbia college school of library economy which was founded by him and opened in January, 1887, for the professional training of librarians. In 1888 he was elected secretary and treasurer of the University of the state of New York and director of the New York state library. The Library school was transferred to the state library and he continued in its management. He was the framer of the University law of 1892. In 1896 when the National educational association organized for the first time a library department, Mr. Dewey was elected its first president. In 1897 he was commissioned by the U.S. government delegate to the international congress of librarians in connection with the Queen's jubilee in London. In a speech made by the librarian of Oxford university he gave to Mr. Dewey credit above all other librarians together, for the remarkable progress of the two decades which had won for librarianship its distinct recognition among the learned professions. He edited the Library Journal, the Library Notes, the Metric Bulletin, the Metric Advocate, and the Spelling Reform Bulletin. He is the author of Rules for Author and Classed Catalogs, and Decimal Classification and Relative Index (1885, 5th ed., 1894).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Adams Center, (Jefferson County) New York

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