DDC Introduction: West to East This article examines how the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system has been adapted and translated into both Western and non-Western nations and the problems that emerged during this process. In this article we will first look at what the DDC is, looking specifically at its history and how Custer helped the DDC become an international classification system. Next we will focus on problems that arise during the process of adapting and translating DDC from one culture to another. Prior to the conclusion there will be a literature review examining how Western and non-Western nations adapt to DDC. The Dewey decimal classification system is an organizational system used to organize information materials in libraries so that those materials are easier to find. In this world of computers and the Internet it is normally very easy to get information by simply pressing a button. It hasn't always been this way. Because in a time before computers, a person had to go through a physical object like a book or an atlas to find the information they were looking for. This can be a problem when a person searches for specific information that is only found in a small number of books in a library of thousands. The DDC was created to solve this problem by allowing a person to search for a topic which will then lead them to materials that will contain the information they are looking for. Mitchell and Vizine-Goetz (2009) mention that the basic design of the DDC has information organized into 10 primary classes and those classes are separated into 10 divisions which are separated into 10 individual sections. This classroom organization can be… middle of paper… from Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition (pp. 1507–1517). Taylor and Francesco. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1081/E-ELIS3-120043240New, G. R. (1998). Custer and Dewey's modernization. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, 25(2-3), 133–149. doi:10.1300/J104v25n02_10Olson, H. A. (2001). Equality and difference: a cultural foundation of classification. Library Resources and Technical Services, 45(3), 115–122.Satija, M. P. ., [email protected]. (2013). Summaries from the 19th (1979) to 23rd (2011) editions of the Dewey Decimal Classification. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 33(4), 277–288. Sulistyo-Basuki, L., & Mulyani, A. S. (2008). Indonesian librarians' efforts to adapt and revise the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) notation 297 on Islam. Malaysian Journal of Library and Information Science, 13(2), 89–101.