One question that people sometimes ask about Dewey is about why the 600s are a hodgepodge of seemingly unrelated topics. The caption of the 600 hierarchy is Technology, which makes it hard to understand how such disparate topics as medicine, engineering, cooking, child rearing, management, and construction would fit under one main class.
For the first 14 editions of the DDC, the caption for the 600s was Useful arts (as opposed to the 700s, labeled Fine arts). The categories of 600s in the first edition of the DDC are not too far removed from what exists currently in WebDewey; the divisions of the 600 hierarchy in 1876 were:
610 Medicine
620 Engineering
630 Agriculture
640 Domestic economy
650 Communication and commerce
660 Chemical technology
670 Manufactures
680 Mechanic trades
690 Building
As discussed in Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences (page 47), the broad idea of "technology" was not a conceptual category when Melvil Dewey wrote the first edition of the DDC. Similarly, in a 1901 draft of the Library of Congress Classification, these topics were grouped together as "Useful Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures" in what would eventually become the "Technology" category.
In the contentious 15th edition (1951), the caption of the 600s was changed to Applied science, while in the next edition (1958), the caption was revised again, to Technology. Some interim editions have listed the caption as "Technology (Applied sciences)," but the caption has remained Technology through the current edition.
To focus on just one part of the 600s, Melvil Dewey and his wife Annie were closely involved in the development of the discipline of home economics. (Melvil was very interested in economy and efficiency, founding the very first library instruction program in 1887 at Columbia under the name School of Library Economy.) At the Lake Placid Conferences on Home Economics, held annually from 1899 to 1908 at the Deweys’ resort, attendees worked to define the concepts involved in the new discipline and founded the American Home Economics Association. They proposed different names to represent the different aspects of the field (including "euthenics" and "ecology") and worked to combat the marginalized position of home economics compared to other disciplines (primarily because it was seen as inconsequential and women's work). The attendees of the Lake Placid conferences even proposed a new additional provision for home economics in the DDC within the 300s, because sociology and economics were seen as having more prestige than home economics. You can read more about this fascinating history in the 2004 article "Classification and the Definition of a Discipline: The Dewey Decimal Classification and Home Economics" by Anne M. Fields and Tschera Harkness Connell.
Understanding this history gives us greater understanding of just how malleable our conceptions of categories and disciplines can be, even though they can feel locked in place by systems like the DDC. Does knowing that the captions were once "Useful arts" and "Applied sciences" help make the disciplines located within the 600s make more sense? Would changing the caption of the 600s to Applied sciences (or something else) make it easier for users to find works? Let us know what you think!
This is the latest post within my series discussing frequently asked questions about Dewey. Previous posts have included:
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