Booksnat the library have to be in some sensible order.
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Whatnif all the books in a library were arranged in alphabetical ordernaccording to the title, say, or the author’s last name? It would benhard to find books on a particular topic (such as how to drawncartoons or the landscapes of Iceland) with such a system. And itnwould be impossible to easily browse through all the books availablenabout dinosaurs.
Whatnif all the books in a library were arranged in alphabetical ordernaccording to the title, say, or the author’s last name? It would benhard to find books on a particular topic (such as how to drawncartoons or the landscapes of Iceland) with such a system. And itnwould be impossible to easily browse through all the books availablenabout dinosaurs.n
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nSonnonfiction books should be sorted by topic. Right? But…there are anmillion ways to organize books by topic. It would be nice to have ansystem that is used everywhere.
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ThenDewey Decimal System is one of the most common book-organizationnsystems. Its main competitor in the U.S. is the Library of Congressnclassification. The Dewey Decimal System, unlike the Library ofnCongress System, was developed by basically one guy, Melvil Dewey. Henwas born in 1851, he created the Dewey Decimal System in 1876, henmodified and improved his system for the rest of his life—and thatnsystem is still used in more than 200,000 libraries in at least 135ncountries, today!
ThenDewey Decimal System is one of the most common book-organizationnsystems. Its main competitor in the U.S. is the Library of Congressnclassification. The Dewey Decimal System, unlike the Library ofnCongress System, was developed by basically one guy, Melvil Dewey. Henwas born in 1851, he created the Dewey Decimal System in 1876, henmodified and improved his system for the rest of his life—and thatnsystem is still used in more than 200,000 libraries in at least 135ncountries, today!n
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Andnsince it’s Dewey’s birthday, today we celebrate Dewey Decimal Day.
Andnsince it’s Dewey’s birthday, today we celebrate Dewey Decimal Day.n
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nHerenare Dewey’s main classes of books:
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n000s—computer science,nlibrary and information science, n
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n generalnstuff, new stuff
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n100s—philosophy andnpsychology
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n200s—religion
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n300s—social sciences
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n400s—language
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n500s—science
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n600s—technology
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n700s—arts
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n800s—literature
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n900s—history, geographynand biography
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nExplorensome more!
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Thenbest place to head today, to celebrate the Dewey Decimal System, isnthe library itself! Browse around the nonfiction sections and studynthe numbers on the lower spine of each book. You will see that booksnare shelved in numerical order—and that means that books aboutnsimilar topics are shelved together. That way we can browse among allnthe books on a particular subject.
Thenbest place to head today, to celebrate the Dewey Decimal System, isnthe library itself! Browse around the nonfiction sections and studynthe numbers on the lower spine of each book. You will see that booksnare shelved in numerical order—and that means that books aboutnsimilar topics are shelved together. That way we can browse among allnthe books on a particular subject.n
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nYouncan also go to the Breitlinks website to learn more about thenDewey Decimal System or to challenge yourself with a Dewey Decimal quiz.
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nAlsonon this date:
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Human Rights Day
Human Rights Day n
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nFirst “computer programmer” Ada Lovelace’s birthday
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n Settlers’ Day in Namibia
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nMPLA Foundation Day in Angola
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nConstitution Day in Thailand
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nNobel Prize Day
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