Librarians measure books in centimeters because Melville Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system and a New Yorker, was a francophile. We measure VHS, CD, and DVD containers in inches because Dewey was dead when they were invented
Unless you’re in this profession there’s no reason to know this, but Dewey was a long, strange drink of prejudice and outrageous, insulting, belittling behavior toward women that was unacceptable even 125 years ago. You’d hope that one of the people who was instrumental in creating a profession where so many women have thrived would have respected women. He didn’t. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he was an asshat.
And he didn’t stop with half the population, he also banned Jews and African Americans from his club. For that, he was forced to leave his own club.
In 2019, the American Library Association, an organization he helped found, removed his name from the award named after him. Without objection. Over and out.
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