Embrace your inner Dewey

Recently, I spent some time at an OLA-sponsored workshop and during a break, I found myself wandering among the shelves at the host library, admiring the collection. Inevitably, I began to edge the books. Like many of my colleagues, obsessive organizing and attention to detail is one of the characteristics of my personality. And according to the March/April 2014 edition of American Libraries, I'm in good company. 

At an early age, ALA founder (and creator of the Dewey Decimal System) Melvil Dewey had an unusual propensity for organization. It isn't every 5-year-old who'd rather organize the spices in the kitchen pantry (alphabetically!) than play with other kids. He was a perfectionist, obsessed with the number 10 and the metric system as a whole, even going so far as to “sleep decimally” in 10-hour stretches rather than the usual eight.

According to Joshua Kendall, Dewey displayed the classic symptoms of someone with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD): he was “preoccupied with order, details, rules and lists.” This illness is often confused with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). If you've ever seen the movie As Good As It Gets, then you're familiar with OCD. Those who suffer from that particular disorder are often incapable of coping with ordinary life, relying on strictly enforced ritual and routines just to make it through the day.

The difference between OCPD and OCD is great. OCD can be incapacitating, while Kendall argues that the OCPD personality can channel obsession and compulsion constructively to lead to “staggering achievements.” Think of Steve Jobs, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Lindbergh – all of whom Kendall profiles in his book: The Compulsive Energy That Built a Nation.

By the time he was 24 years old, Dewey had organized a convention of librarians at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was the beginning of the creation of the American Library Association. He invented the DDC and copyrighted it in 1876. According to Kendall, Dewey’s innovative ideas were behind the creation of the first library for the blind, Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and the first children's library.

The downside to his genius (isn't there always a downside?) was the difficulty he had in getting along with others. Kendall notes that another characteristic of the OCPD is interpersonal problems. Dewey had a reputation for a “mercurial temperament”, was unpredictable and demanding. If an employee was five minutes late (1/12^th of an hour) she could be docked a half a day's pay.

And then there was the squeezing. Dewey liked being around attractive women, and required photographs from prospective students wishing to attend the first library school at Columbia College (because, according to Dewey, “you cannot polish a pumpkin”). Though he did not appear to have acted inappropriately there, Dewey got in trouble during an ALA-sponsored trip to Alaska, where he “made unwelcome advances on four prominent librarians.”

A common character flaw of obsessives, states Kendall, is “the lack of social skills to develop mutually satisfying intimate relationships.”

So while I encourage you to embrace your inner Dewey by transforming your obsessions and compulsions into extraordinary visions, I encourage you to keep your hands on the books and off the librarians.

Portraits of Dewey from the NY Public Library:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?word=Dewey%2C%20Melvil%2C%201851%2D1931&s=3&notword=&f=2

Dewey biography at OCLC:
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/biography.en.html

What’s so great about the Dewey Decimal System? from The Straight Dope:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2238/whats-so-great-about-the-dewey-decimal-system