Today the Wellington Central Library building is 20 years old! But we are also celebrating another very special library birthday.
He was born on December 10 1851 – that is 160 years ago! He was a very famous librarian who thought it would be really helpful if all books about the same things were shelved in the same place. So, he invented the Dewey Decimal system. That is what all those numbers on the spines of non-fiction books are, dewey decimal numbers.
Even though the Dewey Decimal system was invented over 100 years ago a lot of school and public libraries still use it today. His name was Melvil Dewey.
There are heaps of books in the library about famous people – here are a few: