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The Librarian Who Counted Everything — Reading Comprehension

An original grade 5 passage with 6 questions that move from literal recall through inference to vocabulary. A comprehension sheet made only of recall questions tests memory rather than understanding, so the later questions here deliberately cannot be answered by copying a line out of the text.

Grade 5 Standard RI.5.1

Worksheet

The Librarian Who Counted Everything — Reading Comprehension

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  1. The Librarian Who Counted Everything

    Before computers, finding a book in a large library was genuinely hard. Collections were arranged by when a book arrived, or by its size, or by which shelf happened to have room. A reader who wanted every book about bees had no way to find them except by asking someone who remembered.

    In 1876, a twenty-four-year-old assistant librarian named Melvil Dewey published a different idea. Instead of organizing books by where they were, organize them by what they were about. Dewey divided all of human knowledge into ten classes, numbered 000 to 900, then divided each class into ten, and each of those into ten again. A book on bees became 638.1 — and so did every other book on bees, in every library that adopted the system.

    The scheme had real flaws. It reflected the assumptions of one man in one country in one century, and some of its categories have aged badly. But the underlying move — give every subject a number, and the number tells you where to look — turned out to be powerful enough that libraries around the world still use it.

  2. 1How were library collections arranged before Dewey's system?
  3. 2What was Dewey's central idea?
  4. 3Describe how the numbering system is structured.
  5. 4Why does the author say a reader looking for books about bees 'had no way to find them except by asking someone who remembered'?
  6. 5What criticism does the passage make of the system?
  7. 6Despite that criticism, why does the author think the system succeeded?

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Answer key (6 answers)
  1. 1. By when a book arrived, by its size, or by which shelf had room.
  2. 2. Organize books by what they are about rather than by where they are.
  3. 3. Ten classes numbered 000 to 900, each divided into ten, and each of those divided into ten again.
  4. 4. Because nothing in the arrangement grouped books by subject, so the only index was a person's memory.
  5. 5. It reflects the assumptions of one man, in one country, in one century, and some categories have aged badly.
  6. 6. Because the underlying idea — every subject gets a number, and the number tells you where to look — was powerful enough to outlast its flaws.

What to watch for when you grade this sheet

One thing that helps

Ask the child to underline the part of the passage their answer came from. For the inference questions there will be no single line to underline, and noticing that is the lesson.

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