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Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was born in Adams Center, New York. His parents were Joel Dewey, a general store owner, and Eliza Greene.
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Melville and his family moved to Oneida, New York, where he attended a Baptist Seminary.
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In 1872, Dewey started working in the library at Amherst College, where he was a student.
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Dewey graduated from Amherst College and was hired to manage the library and reclassify its holdings.
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A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloging and Arranging Books and Pamphlets in a Library was published - the Dewey Decimal System is born!
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Besides his work in reforming libraries, Melville decided that spelling needed his help, too. He moved to Boston in 1876 and founded the Spelling Reform Association, advocating phonetic spelling as a way to streamline reading and writing. He also founded the Metric Bureau and the American Library Association.
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Melvil married Annie Godfrey. They had one child during their life together.
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Melvil became the state librarian in New York. He also oversaw their college library programs, training new librarians in his methods.
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Annie died.
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Melvil married Emily Beal.
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Melvil Dewey died after suffering a stroke in Lake Placid, Florida.