How To Use the Dewey Decimal System

The Dewey Decimal System organizes information into 10 broad areas, which are broken into smaller and smaller topics. Different topics are assigned numbers, known as "call numbers." For example, "Tigers" are given the number 599.756. To see what books the library currently has in on tigers, go to the nonfiction shelves and find the books that have that number on their spine label.

  • 000 General KnowledgeAlmanacs, Encyclopedias, Libraries, Museums, Newspapers ...
  • 100 Psychology and Philosophy Death & Dying, Ethics, Feelings, Logic, Making Friends, Optical Illusions, Superstitions ...
  • 200 Religions and Mythology Amish, Bible Stories, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Quakers, and other world religions; Greek, Roman and other myths...
  • 300 Social Sciences and Folklore Careers, Customs, Environment, Families, Folktales, Government, Manners, Money, Recycling ...
  • 400 Languages and Grammar Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Sign Language, Spanish. Includes dictionaries...
  • 500 Math and Science Animals, Biology, Chemistry, Dinosaurs, Fish, Geology, Insects, Physics, Planets, Plants ...
  • 600 Medicine and Technology Computers, Cookbooks, Engineering, Farming, Health, Human Body, Inventions, Manufacturing, Nutrition ...
  • 700 Arts and Recreation Architecture, Crafts, Drawing, Games, Jokes, Movies, Music, Puppets, Songbooks, Sports ...
  • 800 Literature Children's Literature, Plays, Poetry, Shakespeare, Writing ...
  • 900 Geography and History Biographies, Countries, Native Americans, States, Travel, Wars ...

Fiction is easy because it’s organized by Author, and the second line will be the first three letters of the author’s last name.