There is no sun in the sky before sunrise. But the entire sky was disturbed by an unseen light. The sky turned red from the pain of a luminous explosion. Soft light echoes around. Even in talented people’s lives, this light’s soft echoes can be heard. We know of its intense radiance, but the history of its early manifestation remains obscure. Flowers bloom, but try to understand the moments before that bloom. Maybe some do. But how many people hear that echo? Perhaps someone gets it. Those who get it become soothsayers. The proverbial man of the library world, Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey, had such a soft light behind the scenes in his life. He was born on December 10, 1851, at the Adams Center in America. Amazingly, the inventor of the world’s most acclaimed system of book classification spent his life on those bright, soft feet in his mother’s small, rented hut. Where there was chaos and disorder, baby Dewey brought a sense of order.

He graduated from Amherst College in 1872 and was promoted to assistant librarian due to his merits. During his tenure in this position, he became familiar with various classification problems. He devoted himself to the solution of this problem so that such a system can be formulated through which it is possible to implement it very easily in all librarians. In this context, he first published “A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloging and Arranging the Book Pamphlets of a Library” from Amherst College in 1876.

Dewey himself said that he was inspired by Natale Battezzati’s Nuovo Sistema di Catalog Bibliografico Generale in Milan, and Joseph Schwartz and W. T Harris was inspired by a famous philosopher and educator. Who classified the state of knowledge based on Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning (1605) and this classification St. Applied to book and book cataloging in the Louis Public Library.

Dewey’s first edition was a 12-page introduction—twelve pages of tables, and 18 pages of guidelines. But its novelty lies in only three areas:

Decimal numbering for books instead of first shelf.

Second – a reference to broad topics.

Third – Relative Index

According to many, these three principals have contributed greatly to the history of the development of library book classification, including Dewey’s original classification system.

Dewey’s attempt to divide the world’s knowledge continued by placing a decimal point and a zero to the left of Arabic numerals. The book of a few pages divided the ten main classes into ten-tenths according to the decimal system. This policy was followed in 1979. As for the pagination of that booklet, it became an encyclopedia of 2692 pages. The 21st edition was then released in 1996 in 4,420 copies, followed by the 22nd and 23rd editions in 2003 and 2011.

Dewey realized that his decimal classification would have to be revised in the future to keep up with the times. But in order to avoid radical changes in structure and sequence of markings, the editors of the second edition promised that no radical changes would be made in the future. This promise has been largely kept in all editions published to date, except the twelfth edition.

The notation has been expanded as far as possible to keep pace with the progression of knowledge while keeping the original structure intact and not detracting from the hierarchy of the list.

A completely new layout system for any part of the main class. For example – 17th edition 150 Psychology; 18th century edition 340 Law and 510 Mathematics; 20th edition 301 – 360 Sociology; 324 State systems and geographical indications 41 – 42 (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales); 16th ed. 546 and 547.

Until the 10th edition, published in 1919, the decimal classification was copyrighted by the name or the name of the library bureau that held it. But in 1924 Dewey gave the copyright to the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation he founded. This institution was entrusted with the responsibility of editing and revising and publishing new editions. After Dewey’s death and in 1933 the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation took over the Forest Press as a subsidiary to publish and sell the new Decimal Classification, and from 1961 the copyright was granted to the Forest Press.

Until 1927 editing was done at Amherst College, Columbia College, the New York State Library, and the Lake Placid Club. That year the editorial office was moved to a room in the Washington and Library of Congress buildings. Currently, all editions are being published and distributed from here.

From 1927 to 1953, the Lake Placid Club assumed management of the editorial office and office staff located in the Library of Congress building. From 1954, the Library of Congress, in cooperation with the Forrest Press, took over the responsibility of carrying out the decimal classification. The library of Congress cooperated with the Library of Congress catalog card in April 1930 to print decimal classification marks. On November 24, 1958, the Office of Decimal Classification and the Decimal Classification Branch of the Library of Congress’s Subject Cataloging Division merged to streamline the editing process and opened the Decimal Classification Office. Decimal Classification Division was given a new name in 1968.

It is necessary to mention here that the Lake Placid Club formed a committee for editorial work in 1937 and this committee was called Decimal Classification Editorial Placid Committee.

The association has representatives from the Lake Placid Club Education Foundation; American Library Association; Library of Congress; Forest Press. From the beginning, the offices of Forest Press were located in Lake Placid, New York. A branch office was opened in Albany, New York in 1970.

At present it can be said that keeping pace with the expansion of knowledge, there will be no difficulty in publishing new editions of the Decimal Classification in the future, including the 23rd edition of 2011, and Dewey will thus live on for a long time.

Finally, this proverbial man died on December 26, 1931, in the world’s library. His full name was Melvile Louis Kossuth Dewey. Dewey founded the Classic Club in 1893, long before his death. Later, it took the form of a foundation. Before his death, he bequeathed all his property to the Lake Placid Club Foundation. In this will, he leaves a share to his heirs. The club is currently working on revisions and additions to the Dewey classification scheme. Dewey will forever be remembered by library professionals for his work.