The Dewey Decimal Classification System
This is the system used to determine the location of books and
some other items on the shelves in nearly all of the school and public
libraries in the United States. It is used by more than 200,000 libraries
in the world.
Its purpose is to give every book a call number that is used as its
“address” so that it can be found (eg. 796.357 for baseball). The other
purpose of the Dewey Decimal number is to keep books on similar
subjects near each other.
Many libraries break up their collection into sub-collections such
as Reference. The abbreviation for these sub-collections is called a
prefix and is normally the first line of the call number (eg. REF
796.357). A prefix is not always followed by a Dewey number (eg. FIC
TWA for a novel by Mark Twain).
The last line of a call number is called the Cutter number. It is
used to differentiate between two books with the same call number. It is
actually a combination of letters and numbers which can be very
confusing. In the HMHS Library, cutter numbers are only the first
three letters of the authors first name or if there is not an author, the
first three letters of the title (eg. REF 796.357 ENC for the The Baseball
Encyclopedia)
Nearly all college and university libraries in the United States use
the Library of Congress classification system to shelve their books.
That is beyond the scope of today’s instruction.
Here is a link to a site that explains the Dewey
Decimal Classification System.
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~vvesper/dewey2.htm#What
A Dewey
1. Based on the Dewey Decimal
Classification System which call
number comes first?
311.0942
311.07
311.116
Do Now
2. Now rewrite them below in their
correct order.
_________
_________
_________
_________
_________
_________
311.2
311.018
311.126
A Dewey
1. Based on the Dewey Decimal
Classification System which call
number comes first?
311.0942
311.07
311.116
311.2
311.018
311.126
Do Now
2. Now rewrite them below in their
correct order.
_________
_________
_________
_________
_________
_________