Dewey Decimal System Day
Today is Dewey Decimal System Day, which honours the creation and establishment of the Dewey Decimal Classification System and American librarian Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) who invented it in 1876. The Dewey Decimal Classification system is a numerical sequencing system which organises primarily non-fiction books and publications into ten main categories to increase findability. It is the most vastly and frequently used library classification system across all libraries, including our very own campus libraries at Edinburgh Napier University.
A bit of History of the Dewey Decimal System
The Dewey Decimal Classification System has been utilised widely since 1876 and over 200,000 libraries globally in 135 countries have adopted this library classification system to organise their non-fiction stock and publications. Whilst working at the Amherst College Library when he was 21, Melvil Dewey designed the proprietary classification system which was then eventually published in the year 1876. With the 10th of December 1851 having been Melvil Dewey’s date of birth, this calendar date was adopted as Dewey Decimal System Day to annually honour his creation of this widely used system. Its 20th edition was published in the late 20th century after several other editions having been released prior to this.
Dewey Groups
The Dewey Decimal Classification System categorises different genres of mostly non-fiction publications into one of ten classes and works as both a navigation and shorthand identification tool. These classes consist of specific topics and subject areas such as psychology, history or the arts to give a few examples. They are organised and shelved in alphanumerical order depending on which class the resource falls into from numbers 000-900. Each Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) number will also have the first three letters of the author or organisation’s surname noted at the very end of it. You can find the call number classification and their classes listed below.
000-099: Computer Science, Information and General Works
100-199: Psychology and Philosophy
200-299: Religion
300-399: Social Sciences
400-499: Language
500-599: Science
600-699: Technology
700-799: Arts and Recreation
800-899: Literature
900-999: Geography and History
These classes are usually divided into subclasses as well. For example, the numerical category 300 covers social sciences, but since a significant number of topics exist within this individual subject area, numerical subcategories can be used to divide and distinguish them all. To illustrate, 320 call numbers cover political science, 340 call numbers cover law and 360 call numbers cover social problems and social services. These categories can be subdivided even further into existing topics within these topics – for example, 327 call numbers cover international relations, 346 call numbers cover private law, and 364 call numbers cover criminology.
All of the books within our campus libraries are organised and shelved in accordance with the Dewey Decimal Classification system. If you sign into LibrarySearch and search for any book within our collection you will find it’s Dewey Decimal Classification number here:
Acknowledgements…
The Dewey Decimal System significantly revolutionised library science. Findability is at the core of this system’s primary objectives. It was invented with the purpose of being easy to use, simplified and an effective navigation tool for patrons to easily locate and identify specific categories of books and publications for their research or other purposes. The system is also kept up-to-date and progressive through consistent revisions and expansions year to year and is maintained by libraries today using current technologies and library management systems.
How we can assist with navigating the DDC system…
Some patrons may feel overwhelmed when they first come across the Dewey Decimal Classification system and when using it to find the resources they require. Our library staff are here to assist you with this – you are always more than welcome to ask any of us at our library helpdesks for help with finding a specific book, or books within a specific numerical sequence and genre. Additional information about how to navigate our campus libraries can be found here in the My Napier Library webpage.
Recommended Reading…
By Rachel Downie
We have a previous blog post on finding books on LibrarySearch
