The structure and main level classes of the KDC are based on the Dewey Decimal Classification.
The KDC is maintained and published by the Classification Committee of the Korean Library Association.
[1] Korean librarians considered adopting the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), especially after it was implemented at Yonsei University in 1957, but struggled to apply it to East Asian and Korean-focused works in their collections.
Committee members prepared draft classes and indexes and the first edition of the KDC was published in May 1964.
The fourth edition, published in 1996, made considerable changes, including increasing the number of representatives on the Classification Committee.