Celebrate Dewey Decimal Day and discover new sections of the downtown Metropolitan library

Every year, Dewey Decimal Day falls on Dec. 10, offering a welcome reminder to cozy up with a book over the cooler winter months. It’s the birthday of Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification. When Dewey invented the system at Amherst College Library in 1873, he was only 21 years old!

As you celebrate this year, head over to enjoy the downtown Metropolitan library, check out a book or two, and take in all that the space has to offer. It’s a great place to bring your family and friends to learn about the Dewey Decimal System and explore. The library is located conveniently at 300 Park Avenue, close to some of downtown Oklahoma City’s greatest attractions like Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park. It’s a four-story building, full of technology, cozy spaces, and (of course) an impressive collection of books. The building opened in 2004, thanks to funding from MAPS, and over the years it has consistently served our community with access to education, events, and book-borrowing.

This year, the downtown library welcomed a new collection of books in collaboration with Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, ArtDesk magazine, Kirkpatrick Foundation and Christian Keesee, chairman of Kirkpatrick Foundation and founder of Oklahoma Contemporary. The new collection is the Contemporary Art Reference Library. In addition to being able to look through some of the most powerful pieces of art ever created, the collection offers books with overviews of art history, artist biographies, and art criticism. You can learn more about the collection here.

When you’re ready for a break from reading, discovering new books, or observing high-quality images of art in the library, you may consider participating in the Winter Wonderland Writing contest! The contest is open to anyone and has a 1000-word limit for each entry. Prompts and additional information about the contest can be found here. Submissions are due by January 31^st and three winners will be announced in February.

Have yet to apply for a library card? Do yourself a favor and apply today! The application takes no more than two minutes and gives you immediate access to hours upon hours of enjoyment.