Exploring Non Fiction

Nonfiction and Libraries

You might remember in a younger grade when the librarian at your school spoke about the book “neighborhoods” in the Library. Just like you, the librarian said, the books in these neighborhoods had addresses to indicate where the book “lived” in the Library. Books that had an address with numbers and letters resided in the nonfiction book neighborhood. This relatable story provided a second grader with a basic explanation of the Dewey Decimal Classification System, the method of book organization for many K-12 schools and public libraries.

Dewey Who?

It was around 1876 when Professor Melvin Dewey created his system of Library organization. Back then the word “technology” had a different meaning, iPhones didn't exist, and most trips into town were by horse-drawn carriage. Though the Dewey Decimal Classification System still works to organize books, many have argued that this 145 old method is quirky and no longer applicable to 21sr century patrons' needs.

Do you Dewey?

Yet, to find a nonfiction book, it is still necessary to know the neighborhood! The fact that the Dewey system divides nonfiction books into subject area groupings and that these groupings are numbered from 000-999 is the key to browsing the book shelves or a Library collection online. Here is a way to remember