The Smiley Memorial Library children's/juvenile literature collection is organized using Dewey Decimal Classification. Dewey Decimal Classification organizes items by topic, so when you browse the shelves you will see books with a similar focus or topic sitting next to each other. There are ten broad topic categories used by Dewey:
Each of these broad categories are divided down into smaller subtopics. For example, a Dewey number in the 970s would be assigned to a title relating to the history of North America. Unlike a Library of Congress call number, which starts with a alphabetical characters indicating a class, Dewey call numbers will begin with a numerical Dewey number.
Below is an example of a Dewey Decimal Classification call number, as it would appear on a spine label. The call number appears in five separate lines:
JUV
510.2
F575
hu
2017
In this example:
An example of a call number, as it would appear in the library catalog, is 510.2 F575 hu 2017.
In this example:
Each book on the Library's shelves will feature a spine label that signifies a call number. In the Dewey Decimal Classification system, call numbers are made up of a series of numbers, decimals, and letters. On the spine label, call numbers will typically have five lines, such as in the example above. In the library's catalog, this same call number will be written on one single line and will be broken up by spaces (741.5 M298 nu 2011) but it will still be read in the same format. The following slides will walk you through how to read a LCC call number. You can use the arrows to navigate through the slides.
The very first line of every Dewey Decimal Classification spine label will be the same in Smiley Memorial Library. JUV indicates that the title is a part of the Children's/Juvenile Literature collection on the third floor. The second line of the spine label is where the information will start to differ. The first three numbers indicate the Dewey class assigned to the title. The Dewey class is read and shelved numerically. For example, 034 would be shelved before 156 and 741 would be shelved before 743.
Anything appearing after a decimal point is read as a decimal. Remember the principle that nothing comes before something. An example of a Dewey shelf sequence would be 741, 741.05, 741.24, 741.6. It can sometimes be helpful to imagine zeros at the end of the numbers (ex: 741.000, 741.050, 741.240 741.600).
The third line consists of a series of letters and numbers. This sequence, called a Cutter number, indicates the author of the book (in this case, McDonnell). The letter is read alphabetically and each number following is read as a decimal.
The fourth line in this spine label references the title of the book. This is shelved alphabetically.
The final line indicates the publication year. This will be arranged chronologically.
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