DEWEY, Melvii, librarian, born in Adams Centre, Jefferson County, New York, 10 December 1851. He was graduated at Amherst in 1874, and was acting librarian there from 1873 till 1876, when he removed to Boston and devoted himself to popular education through the simplifying and systematizing of libraries and library work, the introduction of the international or metric system of weights and measures, and the simplification of English spelling. He has been a contributor to periodical literature in the advancement of his ideas, has prepared various catalogues, and edited the "Library Journal " from 1876 till 1881, "Library Notes," the "Metric Bulletin," "Metric Advocate," and " Spelling Reform Bulletin." He became manager of the Library Bureau in 1876, chief librarian of Columbia College in 188:,', and professor of library economy and director of the Columbia College library school in 1887. He is the author of a "' Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library" (Amherst, 1876); and " Decimal Classification and Relative Index" (Boston, 1885).