Peirce College Information Literacy Tutorial

Imagine you are starting a library and you had a few thousand books, magazines and other materials. How would you organize all those sources so people could easily find things? What if your collection grew to a few million items? Could your collection logically adapt and expand?

Libraries have chosen to organize their collections by subject. These subjects are represented by call number systems called classification systems. There are two major classification systems: the Dewey Decimal System with call numbers that begin with numbers, and the Library of Congress (LC) Classification System with call numbers that begin with letters.

Peirce College Library uses the Dewey Decimal System.

In 1876 the American librarian Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) published " A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloging and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library. " In it he outlined a new system of arranging the contents of a library, a system that today we call the Dewey Decimal System . Dewey's system is based on the division of all knowledge into 10 groups.

000 Generalities
100 Philosophy & psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Natural sciences & mathematics
600 Technology (Applied sciences)
700 The arts
800 Literature & rhetoric
900 Geography & history

These 10 main groups are then in turn subdivided again and again to create even more specific subject groups within each of main subject headings.

Dewey, like many librarians, was a pretty eccentric guy. He must have liked developing systems because he also came up with a reformed system of spelling - in which his own name became Dui. He is also responsible for the creation of library science, which is still offered as a degree of study in many universities. Yep. Librarians actually have degrees in this stuff. That's why they're the best people to ask when you need help with research.

Library of Congress Classification System

Many academic libraries use the Library of Congress (LC) Classification System which is divided into 21 branches of knowledge represented by letters:

A - General works
B - Philosophy
C - Auxiliary sciences of history
D - History (general)
E-F - History (Americas)
G - Geography
H - Social sciences
J - Political science
K - Law
L - Education
M - Music
N - Visual arts
P - Language and literature
Q - Science
R - Medicine
S - Agriculture
T - Technology
U - Military science
V - Naval science
Z - Bibliography; library science

Each branch is divided into more specific topics represented by combinations of letters and numbers. For example,the book Teleworking has the call number
HD 2336.3 B523 1995 :

H - Social sciences and business
HD - Economic history and conditions
2321 - 4730 - Industry
2331 - 2336 - Household Industry
2336.3 - Telecommuting