Author:
John Stephens
Date Of Creation:
23 January 2021
Update Date:
1 July 2024
Content
If you are planning to volunteer or apply for a library job, you will need to know how to organize library bookshelves. All books in all libraries are classified according to the Dewey Decimal System (Dewey Decimal System), or by the Library of Congress Classification System (US). While many university or specialty libraries use the Library of Congress's Classification System, most public libraries, primary schools, and schools arrange bookshelves according to the Decimal System. Dewey stools.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Sort bookshelves by Dewey Decimal System
Understand the Dewey Decimal System. Learning the system is not difficult as it is logically organized and built on a decimal basis. Basically, each class will be assigned a number to classify (with full numbers, such as 800) and numbers in the decimal part (numbers to the right of the decimal point). These are the numbers you see on the back of every book in the library, and they're called the numbers. That system consists of 10 classes, they are further divided into 10 categories, and each category will consist of 10 sub-branches. The 10 main classes of the Dewey Decimal System are:
- 000 - General Principles, Computer Science, and Information
- 100 - Philosophy and Psychology
- 200 - Religious studies
- 300 - The social sciences
- 400 - Linguistics
- 500 - Natural sciences
- 600 - Technology and applied science
- 700 - Art and reproduction
- 800 - Literature
- 900 - Geography and history
Remember that the purpose of numbers is to group books on the same subject, and include at least 2 parts: Number of classes (from 000 to 900) and numbers in decimal. The class number is the whole number and the number (s) in the decimal part are followed by the decimal point.
Reading classification. Here is a brief example of how you can see or position a book on American fiction written between the years 1861 and 1900. (The broad classification for literature is “800”).
- Let's look at the second number after the number "8". The number "1" indicates that the book is classified as "American Literature in General". The second number after the number "8" identifies the branch to divide; 811 is American poetry, 812 is American Drama, 813 is American fiction, 814 is American essay ...
- Look at the first number after the decimal point; this is the number representing the deeper categorization. So the book with the number called "813.4" tells you that the book is an American fiction written between 1861 and 1900. Clearly, the more numbers, the clearer the subject.
Method 2 of 2: How to sort books by the Library of Congress's Classification System
Learn 20 categories that the Library of Congress uses to break up fields of knowledge. Each class corresponds to the letter abc.- A Generic works
- B Philosophy - Religion - Psychology
- C History (Civil)
- D History (Except USA)
- E History of the United States
- F Native American History, Latin American History
- G Geography and Anthropology
- H Social sciences
- J Political Science
- K Law
- M Music
- N Fine Arts
- P Language and linguistics
- Q Science and math
- R Medical
- S Agriculture
- T Technology
- U of Military Science
- V Marine Science
- Z Science directory and library
Read more about how each class is further subdivided, by combining letters and numbers. As with the Dewey Decimal System, the more numbers and characters in the number, the more detailed the classification will be - and the easier it will be to find or sort the book. LC number “PS3537 A426 C3 1951”, identifying “Catcher in the Rye”, by J. D. Salinger, was published in 1951 (last 4 digits in number). advertisement
Advice
- The numbers in both systems are always read from left to right, top to bottom.
- All library books, regardless of their system classification, are always arranged top to bottom and left to right.
Warning
- New employees or library volunteers do not necessarily know all of the Dewey or Library of Congress's complete classification systems. However, make sure you know at least the 10 main categories and the first 10 subtypes of each category.
