December 10th is Dewey Decimal System Day and the staff at the Attleboro Public Library couldn’t be more excited! Commemorating Melvil Dewey and the famous library organizational system he published in 1876, this little known “holiday” shines some light on how the library organizes its collection.
Want to find a book on a certain subject? The Dewey Decimal System is here to help! This classification system is still being used today as a way to organize most public library collections by subject. The system has 10 general classes, or categories, to organize non-fiction books by subject, putting books about the same subject in the same area of the library.
000 Generalities
100 Philosophy and Psychology
200 Religion
300 Social Science
400 Language
500 Natural Science and Mathematics
600 Technology (Applied Sciences)
700 Arts
800 Literature
900 Geography and History
Each of these categories can be broken down further and further, using decimal numbers. The more specific a title’s subject is, the longer the call number will be.
Confused? We’ve got some resources for you to look at if you’d like to know more. Prefer to just pick your book up off the shelf? We can help there, too. Just tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll find the call number for you!
The Library staff will be wearing their favorite Dewey Decimal Number on Saturday, December 10th. Be sure to ask them about their favorite subject! Find a few of our favorites below:
021.2 Relationships with the community
581.63 Beneficial plants (herbs and their uses)
613.71 Yoga
641.3372 Tea
641.86 Desserts
658.879 Discount Stores
746.43 Knitting and crochet
791.43 Movies
796.357 Baseball
811.54 Poetry
910 Pirates
920 Biographies
940.5318 Holocaust
