The Dewey Decimal System

1
The Dewey Decimal System

• Imagine walking into a room full of books,
• with no method of organization.
• How could you find the book
• you wanted to read?

2
Dewey System

• The Dewey Decimal System
• is a way to organize book materials
• into groups of 100s.
• This makes it easy to find the
• general area you are looking for.
• Its also easy to file books
• away on the shelf.

3
Melvil Dewey

• Melvil Dewey is the man who made the organization
  system that we use today in our libraries.
• Mr. Dewey was born in 1851 and developed this
  system to help us find materials in the library
  more easily.
• Each type of nonfiction book, like sports, arts,
  science, etc. is grouped into numbers of 100

4
How the system is organized

• Here's a short story to help you understand...
• http//tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5002/Alien/alien.ht
  m
• Be sure to follow along with your
• handout and answer each question!

5
Learn the Dewey system

• 000 Generalities encyclopedias, computers
• 100 Philosophy logic, ethics
• 200 Religion all denominations
• 300 Social Sciences law, education, folklore,
  issues
• 400 Languages all over the world
• 500 Natural Sciences Math math, botany,
  zoology
• 600 Technology medicine, home ec, construction
• 700 The Arts drawing, photography, music, sports
• 800 Literature poetry and classics
• 900 Geography History 920s for biography

6
How can you identify fiction items?

• Fiction works are placed in alphabetical author
  by the authors last name
• Paperbacks are grouped in the same way
• There are also many story collections such as
  Accelerated Reader titles, Native American works,
  Mysteries and more

7
Now that you know how its organized

• How can you LOOK for a BOOK?
• You could browse the shelves OR
• Use the online card catalog system

8
The Card Catalog Online

• -how to find a book in the library

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Choose the CAT icon to search the catalog

• Middle School Card Catalog
• http//web2.tccsa.net/html/english_multilis/login/
  HIJH/welcome.html
• You can search for items
• by author, title, subject, etc.
• A designation of J indicates juvenile,
• F is for fiction items,
• REF means Reference,
• PB is for paperback,
• SC is in a story collection,
• AR are accelerated reader titles

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The Opening Screen you can also see more
libraries here
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Why you want to use the card catalog to locate
items

• Lets say you wanted to find a book about a hero
  of Greek mythology, Hercules. What Dewey number
  would you look under?
• The 200s for Mythology is correct, but the
  library has several shelves of 200s
• If you did a keyword search for Greek mythology
  you could narrow your search to only a few books!

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Using the catalog continued

• What if you were looking for a book about the
  history of baseball in the United States would
  you look under United States or baseball or
  history?
• Type all 3 search terms into the card catalog and
  you can quickly locate exactly what books the
  library has on the topic

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Try searching for poems

• You get 60 Hits you can find catalog - status
  - as well as read more on the title!

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Scavenger Hunt Online

• Using the Middle School card catalog, find the
  following items and write down the call
  number/title for each
• 1. A book about Abraham Lincoln
• 2. A book about electricity
• 3. A poetry book
• 4. A fiction book about an animal
• 5. An atlas

15
More Libraries

• If you choose the More Libraries tab, you can
  also look for works at other libraries or in the
  INFOhio collection as well

16
Local Public Libraries

• Be sure to check for
• materials at local public
• libraries Ashland, Wayne
• County, Holmes County,
• and Loudonville can all be
• located at the Hillsdale
• Library website
• http//www.hillsdale.k12.oh.us/hhs/library

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Library Card Catalog Challenge

• Pick a public library catalog and search for a
  book by title, author, or keyword.

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Dewey Card Catalog

• - end of lesson!