Zeeshan Ahmed Sheikh

Librarian

Sultan Mohamed Shah

Aga Khan School

The Dewey Decimal System is a tool used to

sort books into

Dewey Decimal Classification System

groups or categories

Melvil Dewey was born on December 10, 1851

Melvil Dewey created the number order system for library books when he was 21 years old.

Melvil Dewey started the first school for librarians.

The world’s knowledge is divided into 10 categories or groups.

Each group has a main title and is represented by three numbers.

Generalities – 000

Philosophy – 100

Religion – 200

Social Science – 300

Language – 400

Science & Math – 500

Technology – 600

The Arts – 700

Literature – 800

Geography & History - 900

Brings order to the massive

amount of world knowledge

The Dewey Decimal Classification call number can be found on the spine label.

Why?

When the book is shelved, the Dewey Decimal Classification call number can be easily seen.

500Lee

200Bya

000Mea

Encyclopedias

Computers

Library Science

News media

Fact Books

Encyclopedias, References

Books that fit in this group have many different subjects in them. Like:

This is also where books on unexplained subjects would be found-like The Loch

Ness Monster.

Paranormal phenomena

Psychology

Logic

Man thinks

Books that fit in this group tell about how we think and feel.

Quran

History of Islam

Other Religions

About Allah

Books in this group tell about different religions or stories from the Quran.

Law

Education

Folklore

About man’s neighbors, holidays

and customs, government,

military

Books in this group tell about how people live together.

Fairy tales and folk tales are also placed in the 300s. Many

were written to teach a lesson about behavior and..

That’s social studies.

English

Urdu

Other Languages

Man talks with other men

Books in this group are about different languages or grammar.

noun

verb

adjective

Mathematics

Earth sciences

Plants

Animals Man discovers

all that is

around him

Books in this group are about things from nature.

Medicine

Agriculture

Family living

Man makes useful

things

This group has books that are about man-made things.

Drawing

Music

Recreational & performing arts

Man makes

beautiful things

This group has books that are about man-made things.

American Literature

Old English Literature

Literatures of Other Languages

Man writes

Books in this group are stories, plays, or poetry.

This is the group fiction books were put in long ago when The Dewey Decimal Systemwas first invented.

Today we have too many fiction books in our libraries to organize them in this way, so fiction books have their own way of being organized. You know, in ABC

order, by author !

Books that are make-believe, imaginary, and not true.

Books that are true, factual, and real –life.

Nonfiction books contain information

about different subjects -- people,

places, or things. They describe true facts

about the topic being written about. All

Nonfiction books are factual.

Geography

Biographies

Ancient History

Man writes about

travel, people, and

events

Books in this group tell about events of the past and countries of the world.

Biography- 92Don’t forget this group. It contains books about famous people’s lives.

Knowing these big groups will help make it easier to find the books you want in the nonfiction section.

Remember, nonfiction call numbers are placed in number order first, so that means all of the books about the same subject end up near each other on the shelf.

Encyclopedias Atlases Almanacs Dictionaries Year Book Indexes Hand Books Non Book Materials Directories

Newspapers

Magazines

Digest

Year Books

Parts of a Book

What is a Book?

A book is pages, pictures, and wordsA book is animals, people, and birds;

A book is stories of queens and kings,Poems, and songs - so many things!

Curled in a corner where I can hide,With a book I can journey far and wide.Though it's only paper from end to end,

A book is a very special friend.By Lora Dunetz

Spine

The spine of a book holds it together. On the spine you will find the title of the book, the author's name, the call

number, and the name of the publishing company.

TitleThis is the name of the book.

AuthorThis is the name of the person who wrote the book.

Call NumberThis number tells you where the book can be found in

the library.

Publishing CompanyThis is the company that makes the book after it has

been written and illustrated.

Title Page

The title page is the first page in the book.It tells you the title of the book, who wrote it (the author) and who drew the pictures (the

illustrator). It also tells you who published the book.

TitleThis is the name of the book.

AuthorThis is the person who wrote the book.

IllustratorThis is the person who drew the illustrations or pictures.

Publishing CompanyThis is the company that makes the book after it has

been written and illustrated.

Cover

The cover of the book protects its pages.It also tells you the title of the book and the

name of the author.

TitleThis is the name of the book.

AuthorThis is the name of the person who wrote the book.

Call Number

The call number is a group of numbers or letters that tells you where to find the book in

the library.

It may have numbers or letters. It may even have both numbers

and letters.

Example : The Book of Seashells by Allen Shore has a call number

597

Sh

(Section of the library or Class Number)

(Author’s last name Shore)

Call Number