National Library Week: A Celebration in Song

I got the library bug from our rural school's weekly visits from the bookmobile. While in the midst of National Library Week we should point out that Melvil Dewey directed the first library program in the country at Columbia College in 1887. Best known for his system of classifying books, his greatest achievement was probably his invention of the hanging vertical filing system which premiered at the 1893 Columbia Exposition in Chicago.

But we don't have a song about that:

Dewey Decimal System (free download!)

The bookmobile went and lost a wheel
Crashed into my room
I fell in the book deposit bin
I could not swim
I was so scared so unprepared
I cried HELP

Ivan librarian gave me a card
He said this will take you places
Besides where you are
Head for the future
Or go to the past
A library card will get you there really fast

I decided to spread the word
About what I’d heard
So I fixed that wheel on the busted bookmobile
Backed out of my room
With good cheer I gathered all to hear
What I’d been told

CHORUS

Dewey has ten classes
each class has ten divisions
each divided on and on

First there’s generalities
Philosophy, psychology
Religion, social science, languages

Next up there’s math and science
Medicine, technology
Arts like music, clowns & puppetry

At the end there’s literature
Geography and history
The biography of Mr. Melvil Dewey...