Jefferson County Public Library Logo

Books and Beyond Blog Archive
Home Books and Beyond Blog Archive

Books and beyond

NOVEMBER 10, 2011
Dewey Rediscovered
You may find it confusing, awkward, or just plain curious, but the Dewey Decimal Classification system is the way most public libraries arrange the books on their shelves. Developed by a young Melvil Dewey in 1873, the system revolutionized the way library books were shelved.

Previously, books might be shelved in the order it which they were received. Or, they might be shelved together regardless of the topic just because they “looked nice” together on the shelves. With his radical ten-category classification system for ALL of human knowledge as of 1873 (you can see the potential for problems already!), Dewey brought order to the chaos.

Dewey’s ten major categories are:

000: General Works (Miscellaneous)
100: Philosophy
200: Religion
300: Social Sciences
400: Languages
500: Pure Sciences

600: Technology (Practical Arts) including medicine, engineering, business accounting, agriculture, salesmanship, etc.
700: Fine Arts (including architecture, painting, photography, music, amusements, etc.)
800: Literature
900: History, Geography, Biography

The folks at The Straight Dope website have put together a nice history of the Dewey system.

Look for reading recommendations from each category coming soon!

Add a comment
(0 comments)
posted by Briana, Evergreen Library

------------------------------------------------------

Subscribe via RSS
Search

Categories