Meet Dewey

How much do you know about the Dewey Decimal System?

It's the system we use to categorize our non-fiction items: books, DVDs, and talking books. This system makes it easy to browse the right section. If you know that 400s is the language section, you can check for Spanish language books in the adult books, kids' books, talking books, and DVDs.

So here's the basic list:

000: Computers, information, general
Check here for help in learning the latest computer program.

100: Philosophy, psychology
Here's where a lot of the self-help books are!

200: Religion
Find anything from the Bible to the Koran, devotionals to Greek mythology.

300: Social sciences
Check out your relationship books - dating, family, marriage, etc.

400: Language
Learn to speak Italian or learn to sign with your hands!

500: Natural science
Here you'll find information on plants and animals in their natural state, like mushrooms growing in forests and sharks living in the ocean. This section also includes the science of math, so check here if you need help with your algebra!

600: Technology and applied science
While the 500s section contains books on unchanged nature, the 600s section holds books on how humans use nature. So we've got books on inventions, cooking, gardening, medicine, pets, etc.

700: Arts and recreation
Learn how to take a good photo, paint a picture, draw a cartoon, or throw a baseball.

800: Literature
Look here for poetry, instruction on writing, humorous writing, and plays.

900: History, geography, biography
The biography section is 92, so if you're looking for a biography on Abraham Lincoln, look under 92 Lincoln.

Now, this really is basic. You can get much more specific. For instance, you may know you can find books about pets in the 600s, but 636 is domesticated animals and 636.7 is specifically dogs.

I found a neat website created by students to teach other students about the Dewey Decimal System. Check it out here to learn more! I learned some things I never knew!



Laura
On behalf of the ACL