Melvil Dewey was born in New York on December 10, 1851. He went to school and eventually became a librarian at Amherst College. In 1876, he published an important book, one that would totally change the way books were arranged in libraries. Through this book Dewey established the Dewey Decimal System. Dewey did other things to affect the ways libraries operate today. He helped found the American Library Association in 1876 and established the first professional library school in the United States in 1887. Other associations Dewey was involved with include the Children's Library Association, the Association of State Librarians, and the American Library Institute. He also edited Library Journal. Dewey died in 1931, but his revolutionary organization system still stands today as one of the most convenient and comprehensive tools to help librarians and readers locate and classify information. His method continues to be adapted today as librarians apply the Dewey Decimal system to catalog the growing amount of Internet resources. While there are other systems in use throughout libraries and universities, such as the Library of Congress Subject Classification System, Dewey's system has proven to be one of the easiest and most intuitive ways of grouping subjects and dividing library items into accessible, memorable sections