he masses apparently did not extend to a conviction that every citizen should be well-read.
During America's Centennial, Melvil Dewey introduced his new system of classifying books, and the American Library Association (ALA) was founded, bringing order and professionalism to the field. The Dewey Decimal Classification system, an ingenious method of categorizing materials into one of the three primary ways in which each can be studied (scientifically, artistically, or historically), became the accepted standard for categorizing books within 50 years, though it initially faced resistance, especially overseas.
By 1876, the United States had more than 3,600 libraries of all types with collections of at least 300 books each, continuing the country's leadership role in the library movement. Dickson quotes Dewey, who helped found the first-ever school of library sciences, at Columbia University, and who envisioned a society in which "our libraries are as accessible as our post-offices."
Around the turn of the century, libraries started to seek new
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