describe the collections the library held. Young's tenure as Librarian ended with his death in 1899, and his successor, Herbert Putnam, continued to implement the updates to the catalog through his long stay in the office. By the time he departed from his post in 1939, all the classes except K (Law) were well developed.

In creating their classification system, Hanson and Martel evaluated several systems already in existence, including the Dewey Decimal System,