Lower School Library Skills
Understanding Classification Systems
Objectives:
1) For students to understand ways of grouping large amounts of material.
2) For students to determine and practices uses of the decimal system.
3) For students to learn proper classification of non-fiction books using the Dewey Decimal System including new vocabulary when needed.
Questions to Consider:
If you had all the books in a library scattered about, how would you go about organizing them?
What would be helpful about alphabetical order? What would not be helpful about alphabetical order?
Is it helpful to have certain types of books together?
What kind of classifications might you use?
How many different groups would there be? A lot or a few?
A Solution:
1876 Melvil Dewey was the librarian at Amherst College—he came up with a new classification system
The DDS is used in 200,000 Libraries in 135 Countries
Dewey’s system uses 10 classes, which have 10 divisions, which have 10 sections (see handout)
Why is a system based on 10 so handy? Decimals!
Example:
300 is for social sciences
30 is for economics
.9 is for geographic place
.04 is for Europe (.05 is for the USA)
Books are in increasing numerical order, then alphabetical order by the author’s last name (or title if no author is listed)
*Did you know technically fiction books are 813 in the classification section—it is not just for non-fiction!
Other Alternatives:
What could be the downside to this classification system?
i.e. New fields of study, changing boundaries, certain categories go “out of style”
Are there other systems?
Yes, the Library of Congress has a system with many more classes (21). It assigns a letter to each class and then another letter for each subclass. For example,
D is for World History
DA if for British History, while DD is for French History
Then there is a numeric classification within that category
This system is good for places with a huge number of books in highly specialized categories like major universities and the Library of Congress. Most public libraries and small ones (like ours) use Dewey!
Exercise:
Use Dewey’s Divisions to put non-fiction books in the proper order.
Note: Fiction books at our library are currently organized by Realistic/Fantasy/Mystery. Poetry, Fables, Myths, and Anthologies are also pulled out of the regular order.
How could we check to see if we are right? Use the Public Library of Charlotte’s webpage to look up the classification!
You Be the Librarian!
A. Put the following books in the proper order on the shelf…
_____Super Simple Paper Airplanes by Nick Robinson 745.592
_____How to Draw Airplanes by Laura Murawski 743.896
_____Best Ever Paper Airplanes by Norman Schmidt 745.592
_____Fantastic Flight by John Collins 745.592
_____The Ridiculous Race by Steve Hely 940.41
_____ Going on an Airplane by Melinda Radabaugh 387.742
1) Why are several of these books in the “700” classification?
2) If you see a book with a call number of “745.592” what will the book be about?
3) What does a “940” call number tell us about The Ridiculous Race?
B. Put the following books in the proper order on the shelf…
_____A Field Guide to Airplanes of North America 629.13334
by M.R. Montgomery
_____The World of Model Airplanes by William Winter 629.1331
_____Thunderstorms and Airplanes by Richard Collins 629.13252
_____Airplanes from the Dawn of Flight to the Present 629.1309
_____The Airplane Book by Cheryl Mellville 629.133
_____Flying the Hot Ones by Steven Lindblom 629.132
_____Freaky Big Airplanes by Meish Goldish 629.13
_____Fighter Pilots by Antony Loveless 623.7464
1) Why do you think Fighter Pilots is a “623” rather than a “629”?
2) Why do you think the first book has a “long call number” while the book by Goldish has a short call number?