The Dewey Decimal Classification System is a number system used to classify books in libraries by subject matter. It consists of ten major classes, each with ten divisions and ten sections. Call numbers give specific information about the book. Fiction is classified under Literature, but some libraries have a separate section for it. The system is widely used in the US and a similar system is used worldwide. The ten main classes are IT, Philosophy and psychology, Religion, Social sciences, Lingua, Science, Technology, Art and recreation, Literature, and History and geography.
The Dewey Decimal Classification System, sometimes abbreviated DDC, is a method of classifying the books in a library by subject matter. It’s a number system that uses groupings of ten—that is, there are ten major classes, each of which has ten divisions, each of which has ten sections—and the books are placed on the shelf in numerical order. The system was created by Melvil Dewey in 1876 and is currently owned by the Online Computer Library Center in Dublin, Ohio, which acquired the trademark in 1988.
The Dewey Decimal system is widely used in libraries in the United States, and a system based on it, Universal Decimal Classification, is in use around the world. Before it was developed, there was no standard for organizing library books, and most of the systems in use were rather arbitrary and inefficient. Today this system is used in about 95 percent of school and public libraries in the United States, while the Library of Congress filing system, first developed in 1897, is more widely used in government and university libraries.
Call numbers in the Dewey Decimal system give increasingly specific information about the book when read from left to right. There are three numbers in each, followed by a decimal point, which can be followed by more numbers to more specifically classify the book. The second line of the call number consists of the first few letters of the author’s name, which can be used to alphabetize books of the same numerical classification.
Although fictional works are classified within the 800 class, Literature, many libraries choose to have a separate section for fiction where the books are sorted alphabetically by author. Works of literature in the Dewey Decimal System are sorted by original language and then by form—poem, fiction, or essay, for example—so that all works of fictional prose aren’t in one place. Creating a separate section for fiction both appeals to patrons who are only interested in novels and prevents the 800 section from becoming overgrown.
The ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal system are as follows:
000 – IT, information and general works
100 – Philosophy and psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social sciences
400 – Lingua
500 – Science
600 – Technology
700 – Art and recreation
800 – Literature
900 – History and geography
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