Getting to Know the Dewey Decimal Classification System

Getting to Know the Dewey Decimal Classification System, Part 2: 000 – 099

By Hanje Richards

At the Copper Queen Library, we organize our nonfiction according to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system. This applies not only to the adult non-fiction section, but also to the Reference & Southwest Reference, Young Adult, and Juvenile collections, as well as to DVDs and Audiobooks.

In a previous post, I listed the ten general categories of the DDC from 000 – 999. In this post, I’ll look more specifically at the first category, 000 – 099: Computer science, Information, and General Works.

000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
010 Bibliographies
020 Library & information sciences
030 Encyclopedias & books of facts
040 [Unassigned]
050 Magazines, journals & serials
060 Associations, organizations & museums
070 News media, journalism & publishing
080 Quotations
090 Manuscripts & rare books

I won’t bore you with a lot of details, but if you’re interested in further exploring how DDC works, there are various places you can check online, including here.

One reason that being familiar with the system is important is that if you are interested in a particular topic, then you may well be interested in the topics that are shelved near it.

Understanding that can make for a better browsing experience!

At the Copper Queen Library, the sections between 000 and 099 include a lot of interesting titles…

In the circulating collection, books about UFOs and visitors from other planets are shelved here – for example, books by Whitley Strieber and several titles by Erich Von Daniken, including Gods from Outer Space, Signs of the Gods, and Gold of the Gods (001.9 Daniken).

Self-help and how-to computer books are also shelved in this section, as are books about books and libraries. The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete List of All the Books You Will Never Read (002.09 Kelly) is here, as is Book Lust (011.73 Pea) by Nancy Pearl.

Books about journalism and magazine writing can be found at 070, including The Best American Magazine Writing series from 2000 to 2008 (070 Best [Year])

In the general reference collection, 000 – 099 includes the Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopaedia Britannica, World Almanac and Book of Facts, Robert's Rules of Order, and Literary Market Place, while Southwest reference includes such titles as the Classified Bibliography of Native Plants of Arizona.

Quite a bit of variety… and that’s only the first section of shelving! If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please stop at the front desk and ask for assistance.