The Efficient, Inventive (Often Annoying) Melvil Dewey by O’neill, Alexis (review)

And today, we have a book about the person who invented the Dewey Decimal System! This sounds like the world’s worst storytime opening, but expectations will be delightfully upended by O’Neill’s wry take on the—to put it charitably—single-minded Melvil Dewey, whose obsession with clarity and order sent him on end runs around the staid field of nineteenth-century librarianship, imposing his will upon the reluctant and the unenlightened. On his organizational brainstorm, she relates, “He is in LOVE with decimals and libraries. . . . EUREKA! He gets the idea of using NUMBERS and DECIMALS to organize library books.” On his plan to train an army of like-minded librarians, she snickers, “He thinks college-educated women would be TERRIFIC in this profession. They have clear heads, strong hands, and great hearts. (Also, they will work for less money than men.)” Fotheringham matches her wink for wink, portraying meticulously groomed Dewey as train engine charging through books on the library profession and as a pinstripe-suited Janus bust smiling at fans of his hard work and efficiency, while scowling at critics of his control and manipulation. Rollicking humor dominates the text, but O’Neill gets serious in her endnotes, which comment on personality traits, professional practices, and bigotry that tarnished Dewey’s reputation and toppled him from his professional pedestal. A timeline, selected sources, and an entry on his other reform crusades are included. And there’s a mini lesson on the structure of the DDC system as well, because inquiring minds might actually want to know.