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Nearly 125 years after Melvil Dewey gave the decimal new meaning
in American libraries, his classification system is still widely used.
Today, the Dewey Decimal Classification system is used in more than
135 countries and 200,000 libraries. Dewey's system is able to
handle both books and online materials and continues to expand as
the "Information Revolution" expands.
Some teachers and educators are now calling on librarians to
"produce a new Melvil Dewey." That is, they want librarians to
be able to create a system to catologue and organize information
on the Internet. Some say this will mean a system that can
manage a "library without books" or a virtual library.
As mentioned earlier, scores of libraries have already turned to
the Dewey system for classifying material on the World Wide Web.
This has led to the development of many networks that organize
Internet information:
*One major resource for K-12 librarians is "LION" or Librarians
Information Online Network.
*Another major source that's organized Internet information is
OCLC or the Online Comupter Library Center.
*In Maryland, the Sailor online public library system is a major resource
for all information.
In the next section you'll see how books are classified. But the
sections on general and detailed classifications show organization
of online resources. The great thing about the Dewey system is that
it works for both---books and items in physical libraries and online
material on the Internet!
For more on the DDC, click on an underlined link below!
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This web site is maintained by E. Chambers