Dewey Decimal

Call Numbers

(or those numbers on the spine of every library book

that seem like they mean absolutely nothing actually

mean something.) 938 Mac

First Facts

on Ancient

Greeks

by

Fiona

MacDonaldOrganizing the world one book at a time

Who’s Dewey?

• That’s Melville Dewey

• Eccentric guy who wanted spelling

reform

– Liked to spell his name Melvil Dui.

– Dui <3 txt spk

• Big fan of Noah Webster, the creator of

modern American spelling, who liked

simplicity

• Made ten categories of knowledge for

everything we could ever possibly know

2

<3 the beard

An Outline of NonFiction Numbers

3

000 Generalities

100 Philosophy & psychology

200 Religion

300 Social sciences

400 Language

500 Natural sciences & mathematics

600 Technology (Applied sciences)

700 The arts

800 Literature & rhetoric

900 Geography & history

Call Numbers: They mean something to

somebody

A Typical Call Number at school

938

MAC

This number contains

information about the

book. 938 means that it

is in the History (9) and

specifically about

Ancient (3) Greece (8).

The first three letters of the

author’s last name.

Confused?Think of a call number like an upside down

triangle

So, really broad (subject) to really exact (the book you’re

looking for). Make sense? See, we have reasons for

doing what we do.

And you thought librarians just did things to torture you.

Really, torturing you is only part of the reason.

9

3

8

Mac

General Subject (History)

Little more specific (Ancient)

Very Specific (Greece)

Exact Book (author)

Every Subject Known to ManLibrarians like to organize things. We call it call it

“classification” and we believe it makes things easier,

which may or may not be your opinion.

That’s too bad. We’re in charge.

So, there are many many many many subjects and

many many many many call numbers. Luckily, anyone

who uses Dewey Decimals can find pretty much the

same book in almost any library in the world.*

*Except universities in North America, which use Library of Congress Classification.

Fact: Giant, alien children attempting to take over world also

use the Dewey Decimals to organize their human slaves.

Dewey at the Public Library

8 Literature

2 English literatures

3 English fiction

.

9 1900

1 20th century

4 after 1945

R Author (Rowling)

797 Cutter Number (code for author’s last name)

H2 first letter of title

823.914 R797H2 =

Can you figure out what book this is?

Dewey Decimal Fiction

Technically, fiction books belong in

– 800 Literature

But this is annoying so usually all fiction (for Bialik) is just in

– [FIC]

So you can find Harry Potter by JK Rowling in:

[Fic] / Row

instead of 823.914 R797H2

You’re welcome

Be more like Indigo

9

Pros:

Easier for you

Cons:

• Librarians hate bias

• Harder to organize

• Change all the books to different

places on shelves and in computer

And knowledge is power!If you take away only one thing,

take away this: Dewey

Decimals are your friends.

They can help if you know

how to use them.

And if you haven’t learned

anything or just don’t care,

there are a lot of librarians

waiting to help.

Dewey + You =

Ask for Help

Talk to your librarian. That’s what we’re here

for!