The Dewey Decimal System

The Dewey Decimal System was devised by Melvil Dewey and was first published in 1876.  It is one of the systems used by libraries worldwide and is revised continuously.

The Dewey system organizes information into 10 broad areas, which are then broken into smaller and smaller topics. Different topics are assigned numbers, known as call numbers which are on the spine (back) of each book.

For example the subject of Animals is given the number 599. To see what books the library currently has on animals, go to the nonfiction shelves and find the books that have a 599 as part of their call number.

A list of some of the information you can find in the different Dewey Decimal areas are: 000s Computer science, information and general works 100s Philosophy & psychology 200s Religion 300s Social Sciences 400s Language 500s Natural sciences and mathematics 600s Technology/applied science 700s The arts 800s Literature 900s Geography & History