Student Training

Allen Memorial Library is arranged using the Dewey Decimal System of Organization.

“The Dewey Decimal System coordinates materials on the same subject and on related subjects to make items easier to find on the library shelves.  This system organizes information into 10 broad categories.  Each major category is divided into 9 sub-categories.  Each sub-category is further divided into 9 specialized topics that can be broken down even further by adding decimals.  Each division becomes more specific.

“These divisions help decide where a book ‘belongs’ in the Dewey system, and helps us to find a book on a shelf.  For example, books about Japan are given the ‘call number’ 952.  To see what books your library currently has on Japan, go to the non-fiction shelves and find the books that have 952 as part of their call number.”

000 Computers, information, & general reference
100 Philosophy & psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Arts & recreation
800 Literature
900 History & geography

For more information:
http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/summaries/

The Allen Memorial Library uses the Dewey Decimal System to organize our non-fiction shelves.  Non-fiction items can include books, movies, CDs, audiobooks, etc.

Any given item can have a long Dewey Decimal number (also called the "call number"), such as 595.789/BROC.  The reason these numbers get so long is because each digit helps narrow down to the specific subject that the book is about.

The Dewey System first organizes all books into 10 main subject classes.  These are:

Dewey Number Class    Subject

                           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

Within each class, Dewey call numbers continue to get more and more specific.  The example given above, (595.789/BROC), is a book about butterflies.  To get to the subclass for butterflies, the Dewey number grows like this:

500         Natural Science

590         Zoological Sciences

595         Other Invertebrates

595.7      Insects

595.78    Lepidoptera

595.789  Butterflies

Finally, since more than one book about butterflies could have the number 595.789, we also add to the end the first four letters of the author's last name (or, if no author is given, then the first four letters of the title).  In our example, the author is James P. Brock, so BROC is added to the end of the Dewey call number to get 595.789/BROC.

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In the Dewey Decimal System, books are filed digit by digit, not by whole number.  This means, for example, that our book at 595.789/BROC would come after 595.0123 and before 595.9.

With Dewey decimal numbers, it doesn't matter how long the number is.  Items get shelved in order of the numbers, as if they all had the same number of digits.

Here is another example - the Dewey call numbers below are in proper Dewey order:

331

331.01

331.016

331.02

331.041

331.0413

331.042

331.1

331.198

331.2

And again, after the decimal numbers come the letters from the author's name (or title).  When two books have the same number, then they go in alphabetical order by the letters.

Here is an example of Dewey order with decimal numbers and letters:

641/Bett

641.5/Corn

641.5/Wolk

641.555/Ray

641.594/Muns

641.5945/Food

641.596/Mont

641.596/West

641.65/Dese

641.812/Savo

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There are special collections within the library that are sorted differently from the Dewey Decimal System.  Here are some examples:

• Easy Non-fiction, Activity books, Scores, North Dakota Collection, and etc. – are sorted by Dewey Decimal Classification, but have pre-stamps (small code before the Dewey Number) signifying the collection.  You’ll still shelve these by the Dewey Decimal Number.
• Audiovisuals – as well as having pre-stamps Audiovisuals have post-stamps (short code after the Cutter Number)
• Juvenile Fiction and Easy Fiction – are sorted alphabetically by the author’s last name using a Cutter System (these won’t have a Dewey Decimal Number).
• Vinyl LP Records and Music CDs (2^nd Floor) – are sorted alphabetically by the producer/publisher using a special numbering system.

In addition, the library also has purchased the software Dewey Easy v3.0. This is installed on Student Laptop #2. New students can be trained in Dewey shelving by taking this program. When they finish with all modules of the program, there will be a certificate indicating the score that they received. This should be printed out afterwards; keep in mind that the final area score does not print out, so the student should write this in manually.

To reinstall this program, refer to the Coral entry for this software.