Editing Dewey Decimal Classification (section)

===Relative Index===
<!-- EDITORS: please retain Dewey's original (eccentric) spelling here.  "Relativ" is correct. --><!--The materials from the Dewey organisation itself now spell it "relative". There seems no reason to retain Dewey's eccentric spelling.-->
The Relative Index (or, as Dewey spelled it, "Relativ Index") is an alphabetical index to the classification, for use both by classifiers and by library users when seeking books by topic. The index was "relative" because the index entries pointed to the class numbers, not to the page numbers of the printed classification schedule. In this way, the Dewey Decimal Classification itself had the same relative positioning as the library shelf and could be used either as an entry point to the classification, by catalogers, or as an index to a Dewey-classed library itself.<ref>
{{Citation
        | publisher = Govt. print. off.
        | location = Washington
        | author = United States. Office of Education.
        | title = Public libraries in the United States of America
        | date = 1876
        | page = 628    
        | ol = 23403373M
 }}
</ref>