Use the Dewey Decimal System

Doing research?  Large libraries like H-B’s arrange the nonfiction books in categories that apply the Dewey Decimal Classification System.  Each set of 100’s is used to shelve the nonfiction books in number order where the number is related to a particular category of knowledge.  Find your research topic below:

• Chart 1: see the broad categories of knowledge.
• Chart 2:  see more narrow categories of knowledge and inquiry. (Yellow charts in library = “decades”)
• Chart 3: Dewey even more specific units.
• Chart 4: Super detailed for librarian cataloging:
  • 000’s for example (Knowledge, Book Systems, Computer Science)
  • 100’s (Philosophy, Psychology, Ethics, Morality)
  • 200’s, for example (Religions)
  • 300’s for example (Social Sciences)
  • 400’s – Language and Dictionaries
  • 500’s (Pure Science / Theoretical Science)
  • 600’s, for example (Applied Sciences– using science in technologies)
  • 700’s  (Art, Architecture, Sport)
  • 800’s (Literature)
  • 900’s (History)

With a Dewey number, you can head to the shelves to browse for books on your topic. (But you won’t find every related book, so…)

Even better, use the library catalog to search for a topic.  Associated books will give the “call number” to visit on the shelves. But you can look to the left and to the right and discover additional books that are closely related to your research topic. Using the catalog will help you be thorough so that you discover your topic addressed in biographies, memoirs and other sections of non-fiction.