Talk:Dewey Decimal Classification

	Dewey Decimal Classification has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Article milestones Date Process Result February 13, 2014 Good article nominee Listed
	A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on March 6, 2014. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that before Dewey Decimal Classification (inventor pictured), books in most U.S. libraries were arranged by height and order of acquisition?

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The information about DDC number building and synthesized DDC numbers is not obvious nor easy to understand so a more detailed description would help to better understand DDC. -- JakobVoss (talk) 16:02, 25 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

This is summarised under §3 Design. There needs to be a balance struck between three competing viewpoints: WP:COPYVIO – the tables are (I believe) copyright; WP:NOTHOWTO – the aim is to describe, not instruct and lastly a desire for WP to be as universal as possible. I might be persuaded to have a go at explaining in more detail if others would indicate where the balance is, alternatively would a librarian would take up the task? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 16:32, 25 March 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hi everyone! I was reviewing reference number 52 in relation to the section on the treatment of Homosexuality and I think the source was misread. It has an accurate Wikipedia:As of tag, but the source itself provides further information regarding a classification change. The OCLC no longer recommends the use of 363.49, directly contradicting the claim made by the post. I'm still new here, so I wanted to post a note before going in to settle on an edit that would work. Whisperwind1242 (talk) 00:23, 5 February 2024 (UTC)Reply

I removed the statement that the Richardson copy was the only one extant. Comaromi is careful not to say that it is the only one and I can find at least 3 copies in HathiTrust - Harvard, UC Berkeley, and University of Michigan. The UC Berkeley one has some notes by J C Rowell, who himself developed a library classification that was used in the Berkeley library. Lamona (talk) 02:39, 2 September 2025 (UTC)Reply

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 21 January 2026 and 13 March 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Liddymatthew (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Strivenword (talk) 07:15, 5 February 2026 (UTC)Reply

in b pharma pharmaceutics 1 book pls tell me bout title n volume ~2026-13057-56 (talk) 02:39, 28 February 2026 (UTC)Reply

Hello @~2026-13057-56, the talk page is not for discussion about a subject or recommendations (as I interpret you are asking for). Its purpose is to discuss the article itself and its improvement. See WP:TALKPURPOSE. SSR07 (talk) 05:18, 28 February 2026 (UTC)Reply

"The decimal number classification introduced the concepts of relative location and relative index. Libraries previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to the order of acquisition rather than topic." it is important to note that DDC was not the first example of relative location, nor did dewey invent relative classification. The preface to his 1876 publication on DDC states that relative location has been used in libraries previously. (it could also be argued that WT Harris described a system of relative classification in 1870 in his Essay on Classification) The phrasing above could imply that relative location was a wholly new creation devised by Dewey. JanetPlanet518 (talk) 16:59, 21 March 2026 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for pointing that out. I made some changes in that paragraph - let me know what you think. Lamona (talk) 04:56, 1 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Yes thank you! JanetPlanet518 (talk) 22:33, 31 May 2026 (UTC)Reply