Dewey and the Librarians

I’m just not sure how much I trust Melvil Dewey.  I know he was a brilliant organizer and did more than spew decimals around the library, but I am a little skeptical of his motives for setting up the first school for librarians at Columbia College in 1888.  Sarah Prescott’s article in the SLJ, “If You Knew Dewey”, presented the history that left me wondering about Dewey’s inner moral compass. 

 Dewey was hired to be the head library of Columbia College in 1883 and wisely used his position to persuade the college to open a school for librarians called “The School of Library Economy” (where he could conveniently spread the gospel of his new decimal system).  At the time, women were not welcomed at Columbia - unless they attended the ‘special’ women’s school.  This small detail didn’t get in Dewey’s way, he proceeded to open admissions to both sexes and Columbia, shocked and furious, countered by refusing to let him use their classrooms.  Ever determined Dewey and his harem of 17 women and 3 men marched across the street and cleaned out a room above the college chapel to hold classes (he told the students that the college just hadn’t expecting such a big inaugural class).  

At first I applauded Dewey for striving towards equality and rising above conventional thinking of the time.  But the more I read, the more I began to question what was really going on in his file cabinet brain.  Was Dewey taking advantage of the limited career opportunities open to women to interest them in enrolling in his program?  Was he just looking for ways to spread the good word of his Dewey Decimal System?  Did he believe that his system was so easy that “even a woman” could learn it?  Was he trying to create disciples that would go on to implement the Dewey Decimal System at Carnegie libraries around the country?  And, far more creepy, why did Dewey’s library school application require data about the student’s height, weight, eye and hair color?  To make the selection process easier, Dewey even recommended the inclusion of a photograph. 

 Katharine Phenix argues that women were welcomed into the library at the time only because they were “cheap and available” and she quotes Justin Windson, “we set a high value on women’s work...and for the money they cost they are infinitely better than equivalent salaries will produce in the other sex.”  Dewey may have added ‘enjoyable to look at’ to the list of advantages.
Of course, I don’t know what Dewey’s motivations were but I know enough about his personality and prejudices to assume that he was not operating to enhance women’s independence nor was standing up for social injustice.  He was a pragmatist in every aspect of his life, passion had little, or nothing to do with his life choices.  And once he got an idea in his head - look out - not much could stop him!  

Dewey has been criticized for approaching the vocation of library science as a technical skill, not as the complex profession that it is.  He certainly didn’t regard his librarians as “managers of knowledge” - he taught them how label, categorize, file and find - thinking wasn’t a high priority.  The career of ‘librarian’ would become one of the few paths that were acceptable for women in the early 20th Century and it continues to be a female dominated profession (similar to elementary school teachers), in the year 2000, 85% of librarians were women.  

In my mind Dewey certainly isn’t a hero in the women’s movement but he isn’t a villian either - no matter what, he opened the door to women and allowed them into the library as authorities.  And once the cat was out of the bag there wasn’t much that could be done to stop women from becoming more than library technicians - they began creating libraries that spread knowledge, understanding and inspiration across our country, leaving Dewey in the dust.