We all need to understand the Dewey Decimal System to be able to find the materials we want in the library. In this website, we're going to explore the following facts.  These things will help you become a successful library user.

• Melvil Dewey thought up the DDC. We'll meet him and learn a little about him, too!
• The DDC classifies books into 10 categories.  We'll talk about them and find out where books go in them.
• Fiction or nonfiction?  What do these titles mean?

Meet Melvil

Melvil Dewey lived an extraordinary life.  He was born in Adams Center, New York, on December 10, 1851, and died on December 26, 1931.  Melvil Dewey was a librarian who was credited with creating a decimal classification system for the library called the Dewey Decimal System.  In 1876, he founded the American Library Association and published the first Library Journal.   It's important to note that Melvil also opened the first library school in 1887 at Columbia University.  Over 130 years later, we're still benefiting from his works!

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

How do we know if a book if fiction or nonfiction?  Maybe to get to the answer here, we need a definition.

A fiction book is one that the author has made up out of their imagination.  A fiction book can be based on a real situation, but the author may have embellished what really happened or even made up some of the conversations in a fiction book.

A nonfiction book is grounded in facts.  A nonfiction author has researched their subject and is careful to include on facts as they know them.

In a library, it's easy to tell if a book is fiction or nonfiction by looking at the call number.  Fiction books have an "E" for "Everybody" or an "F" or even "FIC" for fiction.  Nonfiction books are classified by the Dewey Decimal System and have and number in their call number.

How are books shelved?

Melvil Dewey was frustrated in his library because the more books he got, the harder it became to find them when he needed them.  So, he devised the Dewey Decimal System.  This system was built by putting subjects into ten basic categories.  He chose ten because our number system is based on tens.  He wanted each book to have a specific number on the spine so that it could be filed and found again.  By using decimals with this numbering system, he could be as specific as he needed to be with the subjects of the books.

Dewey chose his ten basic subjects areas pretending to be a caveman.  Check out this cool PowerPoint to see what I mean.