Dear Dashhounds, are you one of the 75% (15% according to Beth) who know the term, Dewey Decimal System? Do you care? You will today as Strange Country hosts Beth and Kelly discuss the life and times of Melvil Dewey, which really encompassed a lot of misogyny, racism and antisemitism. Yet still he was lauded as a library great. How do we handle these people of the past, and how should we handle them now? The answer lies within a sweet song that you won’t be able to get out of your head. Always, thanks for listening it is an act of love which is the opposite of fear.

Theme music: Big White Lie by A Cast of Thousands

Cite your sources: 

Albanese, Andrew. ALA 2019: ALA Votes to Strip Melvil Dewey's Name from its Top Honor. Publisher's Weekly. June 24, 2019. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/80557-ala-votes-to-strip-melvil-dewey-s-name-from-its-top-honor.html

Albright, Madeliene. An Undiplomatic Moment. New York Times, Feb. 3, 2016

Beck, Clare. The New Woman as Librarian. The Career of Adelaide Hasse. Scarecrow Press. 2006. 

Ford, Anne. Bringing Harassment out of the History Books. American Libraries. June 1, 2018. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/06/01/melvil-dewey-bringing-harassment-out-of-the-history-books/

Gambino, Megan. Madeliene Albright and Her Life in Pins. Smithsonian Magazine. June 10.

Mann, Bryan. Re-Evaluating Lake Placid Notable Melville Dewey's Legacy in the "me too" era. July 17, 2019. NCPR. https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/39142/20190717/re-evaluating-lake-placid-notable-melville-dewey-s-legacy-in-the-me-too-era

"Melville Dewey." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. March 2022.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvil_Dewey

Nunes, Christina Zita. Cataloging Black Knowledge. Perspectives on  History. Nov. 20, 2018. https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection

Weeks, Linton. The Undimmed Light. The Washington Post. Nov. 15, 1995. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1995/11/15/the-undimmed-light/5e4330cc-4d2e-40d6-9c11-8af6e28b9c84/

https://www.britannica.com/science/Dewey-Decimal-Classification

https://www.ala.org/search-results?as_q=dewey

Hasse, Adelaide. https://www.cla-net.org/page/1013/California-Library-Hall-of-Fame-Adelaide-Hasse.htm

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DMW65M3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

Sound effects:

The Dewey Decimal Rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHiUQb5xg7A

Royalty-free Benny Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFLYH2LRKQw

Royalty-free the most amazing Benny Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7hitxP-070