7th Grade Library Skills

Dewey Decimal System

Call Numbers
 Dewey Decimal System

Melvile Dewey was born on December

10, 1851.
At age 5, he alphabetized his mothers
spices in the pantry.
He was obsessed with the #10.
 Melvil Dewey

Melvil Dewey created the library

organization system when he was 21
years old.
He started the first school for librarians
in 1887.
He introduced ideas such as: the first
library for the blind, the first interlibrary
loan program, and the first childrens
library.
 Classifications

10 main classifications in Deweys system.

The worlds knowledge is divided into 10
categories.
These bring order to the worlds knowledge.
Each group has a main title and is represented
by three numbers.
 The Big 10

Generalities 000 Science & Math 500

Philosophy 100 Technology 600
Religion 200 The Arts 700
Social Science 300 Literature 800
Language 400 Geography & History -
900
 Generalities - 000

Encyclopedias
News media
Rare Books

Encyclopedias, References
 Philosophy - 100

Paranormal phenomena
Psychology
Logic

Man thinks
 Religion - 200
Bible
History of Christianity
Other Religions
Mythology

About God
 Social Science - 300

Law
Education
Folklore

About mans neighbors

 Language - 400

English
Spanish
Other Languages

Man talks with other men

 Natural Science
& Math - 500

Mathematics
Earth sciences
Plants
Animals
Man discovers
all that is
around him
 Technology 600

Medicine
Agriculture
Family living

Man makes useful

things
 The Arts - 700

Drawing
Music
Recreational & performing
arts
Man makes
beautiful things
 Literature - 800

American Literature
Old English Literature
Literatures of Other Languages

Man writes
 Geography
& History - 900

Geography
Biographies
Ancient History

Man writes about

travel, people, and
events
 What Do You Remember?

Who created the Dewey Decimal

Classification System?
What does the DDCS do for our library?
How many main classifications are there?
 Works Cited

All clipart taken from the Microsoft Clipart web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us&cag=1

Information on the Dewey Decimal Classification taken from:

Weisburg, H. & Toor, R. Teachers Portfolio of Library Skills
Lessons & Activities (1985). The Center for Applied Research in
Education, Inc.
Call Numbers

On the spine of the book

An identification tag
One way to judge a book by its cover

The Dewey Decimal

Classification call
number can be found
on the spine label.
Why?
When the book is
200 500
shelved, it is easily
000
Mea Bya Lee
seen.
 Author Letters

Authors last name

Always the first three letters

Fiction

Fiction - Books that

are made up by
the author, or are
not true,
are fiction.
 Fiction Call Numbers

Author letters ONLY - NO NUMBERS

Gary Paulson = PAU

Lois Duncan = DUN

 Non-fiction
Nonfiction - is the opposite of
fiction. Books that are
nonfiction, or true,
are about real things,
people,
events, and places.
 Non-Fiction Call Numbers

Dewey Decimal Number

Author letters

973.4 641.55
SMI BET
 Special Collections

Special Call Numbers

Call number will be DIFFERENT than a
normal call number

REF SC
423 KIN
DAL
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN CALL NUMBERS

CD CD ROM
DVD Video recording on a DVD
EQU Equipment
FIC Fiction Books
GA Games (educational)
REF Reference Book
SC Story Collection (book of short stories)
 Call Numbers

To the right of the decimal, there is no limit on number.

The more numbers you add to the right of the decimal,
the more specific the subject is.

For example, the Dewey number for the

commercial processing of kidney beans is
664.805652 !!
How to Shelf Read with Dewey
Left-to-right, Top-to-bottom

left-to-right
top-to-bottom

That means you start

at the left on the
top shelf
and move to the
right
until the shelf ends.
Decimal Logic
.5 = 5/10 = 1/2

.50 = 50/100 = 1/2

.500 = 500/1000 = 1/2

.05 = 5/100 = 1/20

.005 = 5/1000 = 1/200