Brandi Kirkland EDUT 6116

 The Dewey Decimal system is a general knowledge organizational tool that is continuously revised to keep pace with knowledge.  The DDC is made up ten classes, each divided into ten divisions, and each having ten sections.  The Dewey Decimal system is the most widely used classification system in the world.  Libraries in more than 135 countries use the Dewey Decimal system to organize and provide access to their collections.  The Dewey Decimal system (DDC for short) has been translated into over thirty languages.

 The DDC is published by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.)  OCLC owns all copyrights in the Dewey Decimal Classification, and licenses the system for a variety of uses.  The DDC numbers are featured in the national bibliographies of more than 60 countries.  Dewey is also used for other purposes as a browsing mechanism for resources on the web.  The Dewey Decimal system is developed and maintained by the Library of Congress.

 Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey was born on December 10, 1851 to a poor family.  Dewey was interested in simplified spelling, he shortened his first name to Mel as a young adult.  Dewey invented the DDC(Dewey Decimal system) when was twenty one and working as a student assistant in the library of Amherst College.  Some say Melville Dewey deserves the title of “Father of Modern Librarianship”  Helped establish the American Library Association  Co-founded and edited Library Journal  Became the librarian of Columbia College (now Columbia University) and founded the world’s first library there in  Melville Dewey died on December 26, 1931 at the age of 80.

 Organizes information into ten broad areas, which are broken into smaller topics.  Different topics are assigned numbers known as “call numbers”.  For example, “Animals are given the number 599. To see what books the library currently has in on animals, look on nonfiction shelf and find books that have 599 as part of their call number.

 000 General Knowledge Almanacs, Encyclopedias, Libraries, and Newspapers…  100 Psychology and Philosophy Death and Dying, Ethics, Feelings, Logic, Superstitions…  200 Religions and Mythology Amish, Bible Stories, Christianity, Quakers, and other 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…

 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, Music, Puppets, Songbooks, Sports…  800 Literature Children’s Literature, Plays, Poetry, Shakespeare, Writing…  900 Geography and History Biographies, Countries, Native Americans, States, Travel, Wars…

   Decimal classes