Do We Know Dewey?

LEARN IT!

You can find most books in the Spencer Butte Library and many other libraries by using the Dewey Decimal Classification System. .You can use it to locate books on the shelves in the library. Librarians memorize many parts of the Dewey system. That's why, when you ask where a book on Spanish might be found, we say go to the 400's, thinking of the 400s section which is where the Dewey system puts books on language.

The major Dewey Decimal divisions are:
000 - Generalities
100 - Philosophy & Psychology
200 - Religion
300 - Social Science
400 - Language
500 - Natural Science & Mathematics
600 - Technology & Applied Sciences
700 - Arts
800 - Literature
900 - Geography & History

As you can see, there are ten major divisions or classes. These areas are further divided into subsections by 10s. For example, Language (400) breaks up into:
410 - Linguistics
420 - English and Old English
430 - Germanic Languages
440 - Romance Languages, French
450 - Italian, Rumanian, Rhaeto-Romanic
460 - Spanish and Portuguese
470 - Italic Languages, Latin
480 - Hellenic Languages, Classical Greek
490 - Other Languages

So, looking at the chart above, we can see a book on Latin could be found in the 470s. At this point, the Dewey Decimal system continues to divide into single digits, then eventually decimal numbers, such as 470.123. These additional divisions help decide where book "belongs" in the Dewey system, and it helps us when we look for the book on a shelf. That's why it's important to keep books in order.

Begin with this site for your Dewey Hunt

Multimedia Tour of the Dewey Decimal System

The 10 Classes of Dewey Numbers expanded by 10's

Test your knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System

Search the web using the Dewey Decimal System with KidsClick