The Deway Decimal Classification

How do we decide which call number should be used for each subject?

We follow a plan worked out by Mr. Melvil Dewey.
He was an American, and he arranged this scheme more than 100 years ago. Now, most libraries throughout the world use his plan, so when you have learned about it, you can use your knowledge all through your life, wherever you go to live.

He decided the subjects up like this:

First he made a section for books about GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

Then he thought about why mankind is in the world at all PHILOSOPHY.

He wondered about God, and made a section for RELIGION.

Next, he began to think about other people, by asking "How do people organize themselves so that they can live together in communitites?" Well, they make laws, have schools, clubs, armies, communications, and transport, etc. Books about these things are in a section called SOCIAL STUDIES.

If you understand that people living in communicaties will want to talk to each other, you will see why Mr. Deway made his next group of books about LANGUAGE.

Having dealt with general knowledge, thoughts of God, and studies about communities, Mr. Deway turned to books about the things around us. This is NATUAL SCIENCE.

We use our scientific knowledge to make things. We call this applied science, or TECHNOLOGY.

By now, it seemed time to relax, so here come the books on ART, HOBBIES and SPORT.

Then a special section was made for the very best stories, poems and plays. This is called LITERATURE.

That only leaves GEOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY and HISTORY to fit in. Those there share the same section.

Counting ARTS, HOBBIES and SPORTS as one, and GEOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY and HISTORY as one, how many sections did Mr. Deway make for his main subjects?

Each section is called a class. The system is called the DEWAY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION.

Mr. Melvil Deway worked out a clever way of finding any subject book at once and right away. Each subject has a number, all libraries have agreed. So you can go straight to a shelf , and take the book you need.