Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification since 1876 Since the publication of its first edition in 1876, the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system has crossed many milestones. Many of these milestones have advanced the organization of library collections to help librarians meet their users' information needs more efficiently.

 

Full edition	Publication year	Abridged edition	Publication year	Volume	Remark
1st	1876				44 pages
2nd	1885				364
3rd	1888
4th	1891
5th	1894	1st	1895
6th	1899
7th	1911
8th	1913	2nd	1915
9th	1915
10th	1919
11th	1922	3rd	1926
12th	1927	4th	1929
13th	1932	5th	1936
14th	1942	6th	1945
15th	1951	7th	1953
16th	1958	8th	1959
17th	1965	9th	1965
18th	1971	10th	1971
19th	1979	11th	1979
20th	1989	12th	1990
21st	1996	13th	1997
22nd	2003	14th	2004
23rd	2011	15th	2012

 

1876	A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging Books and Pamphlets of a Library—the first edition of the DDC—is published anonymously in Amherst, Massachusetts.
1885	Second edition of the DDC is published under Melvil Dewey's name.
1900	The first abridged edition of the DDC is published.
1911	The seventh edition of the DDC is published, which is the first to carry the Forest Press imprint
1916	The Decimal Classification Advisory Committee—the American Library Association's (ALA) first advisory committee—is appointed.
1923	The DDC editorial office moves to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
1930	The Library of Congress begins to print Dewey numbers on catalog cards.
1931	Melvil Dewey, creator of the DDC, dies December 26 at age 80.
1937	The Decimal Classification Committee, a forerunner to the present-day Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee, is established.
1953	The Dewey Decimal Classification Editorial Policy Committee is reconstituted to represent the American Library Association, Forest Press and the Library of Congress to guide to editorial development of the DDC.
1958	The 16th edition of the DDC is published, which is the first to be edited under an agreement between the Library of Congress and Forest Press
1988	Forest Press, based in Albany, New York, becomes a division of OCLC.
1996	The 21st edition of the DDC and Dewey for Windows® are published, which is the first time print and electronic formats are published simultaneously.
1999	The OCLC Forest Press office moves from Albany, New York, to OCLC headquarters in Dublin, Ohio; three years later, the Forest Press imprint is retired.
2000	WebDewey in CORC is published.
2002	WebDewey and Abridged WebDewey are published.
2003	The 22nd edition of the DDC is published.
2004	The 14th edition of the Abridged DDC is published
2011	WebDewey 2.0 is released
2011	The 23rd Edition of the DDC is published
2012	The 15th Abridged Edition of  the DDC is published.

DDC 23 Main Classes

000	Computer science, information and general works
100	Philosophy and psychology
200	Religion
300	Social sciences
400	Language
500	Pure Science
600	Technology
700	Arts and recreation
800	Literature
900	History and geography

DDC 23 Tables

T1 Standard Subdivisions

T2 Geographic Areas, Historical Periods, Biography

T3 Subdivisions for the Arts, for Individual Literatures, for Specific Literary Forms

o    T3A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors

o    T3B Subdivisions for Works by or about More than One Author

o    T3C Notation to Be Added Where Instructed in Table 3B, 700.4, 791.4, 808–809

T4 Subdivisions of Individual Languages and Language Families

T5 Ethnic and National Groups

T6 Languages

Relative Index

The Relative Index is an alphabetical index to the classification, for use both by classifiers and by library users when seeking books by topic.