Librarian Gets Book Deal to Write About Special Library Cat Named Dewey

Posted on April 4, 2007

Librarian Vicki Myron has signed a $1.2 million book deal to write about the Spencer Library's famous cat named Dewey Readmore Books. Dewey was found in the library's book drop on a cold January morning. He was named after the Dewey Decimal system. He became a hardworking library cat and the face of the small town library. Dewey passed away last November at age 19.

The Spencer Library says Dewey was discovered by the library staff in the library's book dropreturn on a cold January morning in 1988. Dewey's full name is Dewey Readmore Books. After taking on his library job and life, Dewey slowly became more famous and eventually became known worldwide.

Dewey generated lots of publicity for the library. He was featured in the local paper, Country Magazine, Cat Fancy Magazine, on the Sioux City television stations, in books, and on postcards. He was a video star in "Puss in Books", a documentary about library cats. Of course, Dewey was already the star of the library.

Dewey was visited by TV crews from as far away as Japan. Myron cut the book deal with Grand Central Publishing. You can find Dewey's bio on the Spencer Library website. The page contains Dewey's job description as well as some rules for cats that have a library to run.

Update: Vicki Myron has since retired from the Spencer Library. Her book is called Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. It is available for purchase from Amazon.com.

Here's a video about Dewey from Iowa PBS.

Image: Grand Central Publishing