OSLIS Dewey
Tutorial
ALL the dirt on Dewey!
Dewey Decimal System
In 1876, a librarian named Melvil Dewey (1851-1931)
attempted to arrange all knowledge into ten very
general categories which he then continued divide
into smaller and smaller topics.
His plan was to find a way to put all books on the same
subject together on the library shelves.
This section will show you how to use the alphabet and
counting to find books.
# Call Number
The Call Number of a book is its address in the library.
Usually the Call Number is located on the spine of a
book and has at least two lines.
The Call Number is sometimes letters and not numbers
at all. Upcoming slides show examples of some typical
Call Numbers.
Your library may use others. Ask the librarian if there
are any special sections in the library when you visit.
Non-Fiction
734 tells me that this is in the Non-Fiction
700 / Fine Arts section AND tells me that
the author's name begins with "And" as in
"Anderson.”
How do I know that?
Well, if the first line of the Call Number is
numbers, the book is in the NonFiction section of the library. Non-fiction
books contain information that is real. This
information is considered “true” or factual.
More Non-fiction…
Here are 3 helpful hints:



Think N is for Numbers,
N is for Non-fiction! *
Think F for Fiction,
F for Fake. Because Fiction is fake!
Think N for Non-Fiction, N for not fake.
Non-fiction is not fake; it’s real!
* There are exceptions to the “numbers for
non-fiction” rule. 398.2 is for cultural stories:
Folklore and Fairy Tales. Also, 811 is for poetry.
More Non-fiction…
The second line of the Call Number will be
the beginning letters of the author's last
name.
Books in the non-fiction section are
in Numerical Order using the Dewey
Decimal system.
Then if the Dewey numbers are exactly
the same for more than one book, those
books will be in alphabetical order by the
second line of the Call Number.
Fiction
FIC stands for Fiction. LOW stands for
the author's last name
If the first line of the Call Number of
the book is FIC, the book is a Fiction
book. Fiction books are stories that
are imaginary. (Fiction is fake, but
fun fake!).
More Fiction…
The second line of the Call Number will be
the beginning letters of the author's last
name. These beginning letters are only a
clue, however. Many books may be written
by different authors with names that start with
the same letters (LOWRY and LOWMAN) so it
is important that you know the complete last
name of an author to quickly and accurately
locate the book.
Since all fiction book Call Numbers have the
exact same first line, they are put
in Alphabetical Order by the second line,
the author's last name.
Reference
REF stands for Reference. 912 tells me that this is
a 900 /History & Geography book. HAM stands
for the author's last name.
If the first line of the Call Number is REF it goes in
the Reference section of the library.
Encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries and
almanacs are the kinds of book in this section.
Some books are in the Reference section
because they do not circulate like other library
books and may not circulate at all.
We never let them leave the library! They are
always here for you to “reference” when you
need to look something up.
More Reference…
The second line of a Reference Call Number will
be the Dewey Number that indicates the
subject of the book. It is just the same as books in
the Non-Fiction section.
The third line of the Call Number will be the
beginning letters of the author's last name.
Books in the reference section are in Numerical
Order using the Dewey Decimal system. Then
books with the same Dewey Number are
shelved in alphabetical order by the third line.
Story Collections
SC stands for story collection. POE stands
for the author's last name.
The first line of this Call Number stands
for Story Collection. This is the section of
the library where short stories are shelved.
Story Collections
The second line of this Call Number will be the
beginning letters of the author's last name.
Sometimes short story collections have stories
by many different authors. In this case, we use
the name of the editor, the one who put
together the collection.
Since all Short Story books have the exact
same first line, they are put in Alphabetical
Order by the author or editor's last name
Biography
B
B or 921 stands for biography. A biography
tells about the life of one person. (For
example: Pablo Picasso) Collections of
biographies tell about the lives of more
than one person (For example: “Famous
Artists”) Dewey put collections of
biographies in 920 and individual
biographies in 921. (Do you recall that the
900s are for history?)
But many libraries keep a separate section
just for individual biographies. In those
libraries, the first line of the Call Number is
often B.
More Biography…
With individual biographies, the second line is not for the
author! The second line is the name of the person the
book is about.
B
Think about it. When you want a book about Benjamin
Franklin, you don’t want to have to look in several
different places, by author, for all the books about him.
You also want books about him to be separated from
books about Anne Frank. So with biographies, we spell
out the WHOLE last name on the second line of the call
number.
FORD is the last name of the subject of this book, Henry
Ford in this case.
Remember, books in this section are in Alphabetical
Order by the last name of the person the book is about.
Dewey Decimal Order
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9…
398.2, 398.24, 398.224
Books using the Dewey Decimal system are in numerical
order.
If you can count, you already have a good idea about
which book comes first.
If you already understand decimal order from your
math class, you already understand the trickiest part of
locating books using the Dewey decimal system. It is
exactly the same.
Why do you suppose you need to understand this to find
books in the library?
Locating a Book
These books are in correct Dewey decimal order. It is just like
counting.
Notice that the only time we worry about the alphabetical
order in the second line is when the Dewey number is exactly
the same. You can see this in the two 567 books below.
But hold on…
it gets trickier!
These books are also in
correct order. Take a look.
If you think they are not in
order it is probably because
you think that .413 is a
bigger number than .51
or you think that .51 is a
bigger number than .7
but that is not true.
Although .413 is longer, it
is not more.
In the library, you can't put zeros on the books so it is best to think
about the point where the numbers become different.
Compare 365.413 and 365.51
See what I mean!
The 3, 6, and 5 are all the same.
Don’t worry if you don’t get it.
The 4 and the 5 are different.
Re-read it.
365.413 and 365.51
Keep it in mind & keep trying to
understand. 
The 4 is smaller so it would come first.
It doesn't matter how many other numbers come after it.
In conclusion…
Okay, you’re right,
that’s not really ALL the dirt on Dewey!
To learn even more, go to:
http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/Basic/basic.htm
Enjoy these “Projects by Students for Students.”
I especially recommend the story “Dewey and the Alien!”
Click “home” – the books icon – to get to it.
Source:
Eugene School District 4J, Eugene, O, . "Dewey Decimal System. “Oregon
School Library Information System. Oregon State Library, 2002, 2007. Web. 25
Sept. 2013. <http://secondary.oslis.org/orig-steps/plan/planresearch/desperatelytseeking/deweysystem>.
Adapted by Ms. Tini Maier, Media Specialist, Portland Public Schools, Portland,
Oregon, 2013.
This citation created using MLA Citation Maker on www.oslis.org.
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