Media Specialists “Dewey” it Better!The Basics of the Dewey Decimal

System of Classifying Books!

Kelly Moss

Did you know that the books are on the shelves in a certain order ???

NO!!! Not that kind of order!!!

The Dewey Decimal Classification

Melvil Dewey developed a system of classifying books into ten major

categories back in 1876. It’s known as the Dewey Decimal System.

This system assigns numbers to nonfiction books in an attempt to group similar

topics together on the shelves, making it easier to locate books within a

library.

The categories are as follows…

Dewey Decimal System000   GENERALITIES

100   PHILOSOPHY and PSYCHOLOGY

200   RELIGION 300 SOCIAL SCIENCES 

400   LANGUAGES

500 SCIENCE and MATH     

600  TECHNOLOGY

700  ARTS and RECREATION

800   LITERATURE

900  GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, and

BIOGRAPHY

How can the Dewey Decimal System help you???

We have TONS of great books in our media center available for you to check out!!!

All you have to do is open the library catalog on any computer, and perform a search to

find what you are interested in reading about.

How do I perform a search?

You can do this by entering specific information such as keywords, the title or author of a book, subjects that interest you or the name of a series.

Just type and then click!!!

Use the results to locate the books in our media center.

For example…

For example…

1. Go to the 000 shelf and then find 031.

2. After finding 031 books, look for the letters that are listed with it. (for example, this

book contains GUI).

1. Go to the 600 shelf and then find 629.222.

2. After finding 629.222 books, look for the letters that are listed with it. (for example,

this book contains HOL).

Great! You just learned how to find books using the

Dewey Decimal System!

Take a look at Dewey’s classifications and and how they are divided into more specific

areas within each numeric section.

Keep in mind that each book you see pictured is available HERE at Northside!!!

COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION & GENERAL WORKS

000 Generalities

010 Bibliography

020 Library & information sciences

030 General encyclopedic works

040 Not assigned or no longer used

050 General serials & their indexes

060 Museums

070 News media, journalism, publishing

080 General collections

090 Manuscripts & rare books

Dewey Category Types of Interests

000

100 Psychology & Philosophy

110 Metaphysics

120 Epistemology, causation, humankind

130 Paranormal phenomena

140 Specific philosophical schools

150 Psychology

160 Logic

170 Ethics

180 Ancient, medieval, Oriental philosophy

190 Modern Western philosophy

Dewey Category Types of Interests

PSYCHOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY100

RELIGION200

200 Religion & Mythology

210 Natural theology

220 Bible

230 Christian theology

240 Christian moral & devotional theology

250 Christian orders & local church

260 Christian social theology

270 Christian church history

280 Christian denominations & sects

290 Other & comparative religions

Dewey Category Types of Interests

SOCIAL SCIENCES300

300 Social Science & Education

310 General statistics

320 Political science

330 Economics

340 Law

350 Public administration

360 Social services; association

370 Education

380 Commerce, communications, transport

390 Customs, etiquette, folklore

Dewey Category Types of Interests

LANGUAGE400

400 Languages

410 Linguistics

420 English & Old English

430 Germanic languages German

440 Romance languages French

450 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romantic

460 Spanish & Portuguese languages

470 Italic Latin

480 Hellenic languages Classical Greek

490 Other languages

Dewey Category Types of Interests

SCIENCE and MATH500

500 Natural sciences & mathematics

510 Mathematics

520 Astronomy & allied sciences

530 Physics

540 Chemistry & allied sciences

550 Earth sciences

560 Paleontology Paleozoology

570 Life sciences

580 Botanical sciences

590 Zoological sciences

Dewey Category Types of Interests

TECHNOLOGY600

600 Technology (Applied sciences)

610 Medical sciences Medicine

620 Engineering & allied operations

630 Agriculture

640 Home economics & family living

650 Management & auxiliary services

660 Chemical engineering

670 Manufacturing

680 Manufacture for specific uses

690 Buildings

Dewey Category Types of Interests

ARTS and RECREATION700

700 The arts

710 Civic & landscape art

720 Architecture

730 Plastic arts Sculpture

740 Drawing & decorative arts

750 Painting & paintings

760 Graphic arts Printmaking & prints

770 Photography & photographs

780 Music

790 Recreational & performing arts

Dewey Category Types of Interests

LITERATURE800

800 Literature and Rhetoric

810 American Literature in English

820 English & Old English Literatures

830 Literatures of Germanic Languages

840 Literatures of Romance Languages

850 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic

860 Spanish & Portuguese Literatures

870 Italic Literatures, Latin

880 Hellenic Literatures, Classical Greek

890 Literatures of other languages

Dewey Category Types of Interests

HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, & BIOGRAPHY900

900 Geography & history

910 Geography & travel

920 Biography, genealogy, insignia

930 History of ancient world

940 General history of Europe

950 General history of Asia Far East

960 General history of Africa

970 General history of North America

980 General history of South America

990 General history of other areas

Dewey Category Types of Interests

So remember… “DO THE DEWEY!!”

Melvil Dewey Rap Video (FUNNY and EDUCATIONAL)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJbZnt89xkI