I thought it was past time to investigate the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, especially after learning that it wasn’t created by John Dewey—whom I greatly admire and whose ideal of free public education to develop a democratic citizenry is currently being dismantled. No, the other Dewey. Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey (1851–1931) devised the system when he was a librarian at Amherst College. The classification scheme was copyrighted in 1876, more than two decades before Herbert Putnam invented the Library of Congress catalog structure. Monday Feb 3—Finally made it out of Social Sciences into Language. What a relief to go from all of the problems in the world to all (or some) of the languages in the world. It was nice to be back with some big fat dictionaries. And here’s someone who had a lot of time on his hands: Ammon Shea, author of Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages. I don’t know whether to be envious or simply annoyed. Maybe I should try reading the book. February 10—I’m stepping out of Dewey Decimal order for a moment to express my extreme discomfort, as a representative of those afflicted with OCD, with The Bottom Shelf. I am referring to the disaster area that the lowest shelf on any library rack inevitably becomes, no matter how diligently one performs one’s duty as a Shelf Reader. A random sample appears directly adjacent, but there are even more disturbing examples below. January 27—Most amazingly weird book of the day was Brad Meltzer’s History Decoded: The Ten Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, which has pockets and slots in which you find little messages and secrets revealed. It’s like a kid’s book for adults. So if you want to know who really killed Abraham Lincoln and JFK, or are wondering about Area 51, this is the book for you. |
Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
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