Amherst's Library

Dewey Decimal was 21 years old when he invented the Dewey Decimal system. In that era, library books often were housed according to a numbering system That indicated the floor, aisle, sectioned and shelf on which they were stored. Whenever rearrangement was necessary, all of the books had to be reclassified. Perceiving the amount of time wasted, Dewey was determined to devise a simple workable and permanent classification system. The scope of the plan put all printed human knowledge into the 10 classifications of a numerical system, ranging from 0, 0, 0 to 900.