This is hilarious!
>Where Did Dewey File Those Law Books?
>
>September 23, 2003
> By MICHAEL LUO
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Who knew that someone owned the Dewey Decimal System?
>
>Apparently not the owners of the Library Hotel, nestled in
>the shadow of the New York Public Library. Now the boutique
>hotel, which numbers its guest rooms and stocks them with
>books according to Melvil Dewey's century-old library
>classification system, is being sued for using it.
>
>"The Dewey Decimal System is a product, a trademark, a
>brand name," said Joseph R. Dreitler, a lawyer for the
>Online Computer Library Center, a nonprofit library
>cooperative that filed the suit last week in Federal
>District Court in Ohio. "The idea here isn't to put the
>Library Hotel out of business. The idea is to protect Dewey
>and the Dewey Decimal System trademark."
>
>The hotel opened three years ago at Madison Avenue and 41st
>Street. From its imitation card catalog in the lobby to its
>stately second-floor reading room, it is designed as a
>siren for book lovers. Each floor is devoted to one of the
>10 main categories of knowledge in the Dewey system: Social
>Sciences, Languages, Math and Science, Technology, the
>Arts, Literature, History and Geography, General Knowledge,
>Philosophy and Religion.
>
>Hotel guests can request a specific floor or themed room,
>furnished with the corresponding books. History buffs might
>consider the ninth floor, with Biography (900.006) or Asian
>History (900.004). A technology aficionado might give
>Computers (600.005) a try.
>
>The most popular rooms, by far? Erotic Literature (800.001)
>and Love (1100.006). Room and suite prices on the hotel's
>Web site range from $295 to $770 per night.
>
>Hotel officials said yesterday that the owner, Henry
>Kallan, could not be reached in Prague, where he is opening
>a new music-themed hotel, the Aria. But the hotel's general
>manager, Craig Spitzer, issued a written statement saying
>that the Dewey Decimal theme was Mr. Kallan's "original
>idea," based on its proximity to the public library.
>
>"We are not a library lending books, but rather we have
>created a unique hotel experience for book lovers to
>enjoy," Mr. Spitzer said. "We do not believe that our
>guests or other consumers are confused into thinking the
>Library Hotel's hospitality services and the O.C.L.C.'s
>information services come from the same source."
>
>The Online Computer Library Center is seeking damages of
>three times the profits the hotel has made since it opened.
>
>
>Dewey, a librarian, invented the Dewey Decimal
>Classification in 1874 and devoted his life to spreading
>it. Over time, it became the most widely employed
>cataloging system in the world, used today in 95 percent of
>public libraries in the United States.
>
>Before its emergence, libraries would dedicate space on
>their shelves for books according to their own systems.
>Adding new volumes, categories and subcategories was often
>unwieldy, and because no two libraries used the same
>system, the method of finding books differed from one
>library to the next.
>
>Dewey copyrighted his system early on and set up a company,
>Forest Press, to sell it, although he often donated his
>system to needy libraries.
>
>He never intended to get rich with his system, said Dr.
>Wayne Wiegand, a professor of library and information
>studies at Florida State University and the author of a
>Dewey biography. Dewey's goal, instead, was to educate the
>masses.
>
>Dr. Wiegand said many smaller libraries, including prison
>libraries, use the system today without paying.
>
>In 1988, the Online Computer Library Center, a group
>created to help libraries share resources and costs, bought
>Forest Press and the Dewey Decimal System trademark.
>Periodically, the group, based in Dublin, Ohio, issues
>updates to the system and sells them to libraries at $375
>for a full printed update. More than 200,000 libraries in
>135 countries are licensed to use the system.
>
>Officials at the library center said they discovered the
>hotel on the Internet soon after it opened. After writing
>two letters to Mr. Kallan, in 2000 and 2001, but getting no
>response, the group sent him a certified letter in October,
>said Mr. Dreitler, the organization's lawyer.
>
>He said Mr. Kallan finally responded with a phone call,
>refusing to give the group credit or stop using the Dewey
>system in his marketing. "He basically said, `Go away,' "
>Mr. Dreitler said.
>
>Theresa Conley runs a small public library in Lyme, Conn.,
>and stayed at the hotel last month, in Ancient Languages
>(400.006). After hearing about the lawsuit from another
>librarian, she dashed off an angry e-mail message to the
>library center, scolding the group.
>
>"It's a place that celebrates books and reading," she said
>in a telephone interview.
>
>"I think that's something that needs to be encouraged and
>commended, and not discouraged by this frivolous, silly
>lawsuit."
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/23/nyregion/23DEWE.html?ex=1065325432&ei=1&en=3e6b0baad05544b6
>
>
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