Do You Know Dewey?

Introduction

Section 1

Section 2

Knowing how to find information in our library will help you with your research and enjoyment of books. When you have finished this webquest you will know more about the Dewey Decimal System. Your goal will be to successfully complete several Dewey-related games to assess your knowledge.

Section 1

The informational books in our library, as in most libraries of the world, are organized according to the Dewey Decimal Classification System. This system of classifying books is named after its founder, Melvil Dewey. The system is based on ten basic classes:

000- 099	General Works	Lots of information in one book or set of books.	Encyclopedias, general reference works, computers, codes, and oddities
100-199	Philosophy and Psychology	What and how do we think?	Optical illusions, brain research, question and answer books.
200-299	Religion and Mythology	Who is the creator?	Bible stories, religions of the world, Greek myths.
300-399	Social Science	How do people communicate and get along?	Communication, education, law, sociology, transportation, etiquette, folklore and fairy tales.
400-499	Language	What language do you speak?	Grammar books, sign language, dictionaries, and picture books in many languages.
500-599	Natural Science and Mathematics	What is in this world around us?	Experiments, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, physics, geology, biology, and dinosaurs. Books on specific animals are also found here.
600-699	Technology (Applied Science)	How do we make nature work for us?	Anatomy, medicine, airplanes, space travel, cookbooks and domesticated animals such as dogs, cats, and horses.
700-799	Arts and Recreation	What do you do for fun and creativity?	Art, artists, how-to-draw books, crafts, origami, music, joke and riddle books, and sports
800-899	Literature	We act and read poetry.	Poetry, plays and classic literature.
900-999	Geography & History	Where do you live?	History, geography and travel, atlases, explorers, and multiple biographies* 920

Let's Practice! Click here. 100 points

Section 2

Within these classes, there are ten divisions. These get more specific and when you use this knowledge to find information, you can go directly to an area to find this information.

000 General Works
010 Bibliographies & catalogs
020 Library & information sciences
030 General encyclopedic works
050 General serials & their indexes
060 General organizations & museology
070 News media, journalism, publishing
080 General collections
090 Manuscripts & rare books

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100 Philosophy and Psychology
110 Metaphysics
120 Epistemology, causation, humankind
130 Paranormal phenomena
140 Specific philosophical schools
150 Psychology
160 Logic
170 Ethics (Moral philosophy)
180 Ancient, medieval, Oriental philosophy
190 Modern Western philosophy

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200 Religion and Mythology
210 Natural theology
220 Bible
230 Christian Theology
240 Christian moral & devotional theology
250 Christian orders & local churches
260 Christian social theology
270 Christian church history
280 Christian denominations & sects
290 Other and comparative religions

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300 Social Sciences
310 General statistics
320 Political science
330 Economics
340 Law
350 Public administration
360 Social services; associations
370 Education
380 Commerce, communications, transport
390 Customs, etiquette, folklore

400 Language
410 Linguistics
420 English & Old English
430 Germanic languages, i.e., German
440 Romance languages, i.e., French
450 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic
460 Spanish & Portuguese languages
470 Italic languages, i.e., Latin
480 Hellenic languages, i.e., Classical Greek
490 Other languages

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500 Natural Sciences and Mathematics
510 Mathematics
520 Astronomy & allied sciences
530 Physics
540 Chemistry & allied sciences
550 Earth sciences
560 Paleontology, Paleozoology
570 Life Sciences
580 Botanical sciences
590 Zoological sciences

600 Technology (Applied Sciences)
610 Medical sciences, i.e., Medicine
620 Engineering & allied sciences
630 Agriculture
640 Home economics & family living
650 Management & auxiliary services
660 Chemical engineering
670 Manufacturing
680 Manufacture for specific uses
690 Buildings

700 Arts and Recreation
710 Civic & landscape art
720 Architecture
730 Plastic arts
740 Drawing & decorative arts
750 Painting & paintings
760 Graphic arts, i.e., Printmaking & prints
770 Photography & photographs
780 Music
790 Recreational & performing arts

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800 Literature
810 American literature in English 820 English and Old English literature
830 Literatures of Germanic languages
840 Literatures of Romance languages
850 Italian, Romanian, Rhaeto-Romanic literatures
860 Spanish & Portuguese literatures
870 Italic literatures, i.e., Latin
880 Hellenic literatures, i.e., Classical Greek
890 literatures of other languages

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900 Geography & History
910 Geography & travel
920 Biography, genealogy, insignias
930 History of the ancient world
940 General history of Europe
950 General history of Asia & Far East
960 General history of Africa
970 General history of North America
980 General history of South America
990 General history of other areas

So that you can learn these divisions click on this link and try this exercise. Record your score on your handout.
Match the book titles on the left to the categories on the right.

Let's Practice. Click here. 100 points

The Dewey System uses decimals which allow us to organize non-fiction books by call numbers.
These Dewey call numbers always have three numbers to the left of the decimal.
So, even if it is in the 000's (we call this the zero hundreds) it would be written like this: 001.9

To the right of the decimal, there is no limit on number. The more numbers you add to the right of the decimal, the more specific the subject is.

For example, the Dewey number for the
an illustrated history of Led Zepplin is 782.42166

Let’s take a look at the Dewey Details http://www.evgschool.org/Dewey_Details.htm
To find the classification number for butterflies, we need to start with the class for natural sciences the 500's This means that the first number of the call number will be a 5

Let's look at the ten divisions of this 500 class. 510 Mathematics 520 Astronomy 530 Physics 540 Chemistry 550 Earth Sciences 560 Paleontology 570 Life Sciences 580 Botanical Sciences 590 Zoological Sciences
Butterflies will be classified under the Zoological Sciences 590. Now we know that the second number of the call number will be a 9. Let's look at the ten divisions of the 590's to find the next number.
591 Zoology 592 Invertebrates 593 Protozoa 594 Mollusa 595 Other Invertebrates (worms and insects) 596 Vertebrates 597 Fishes 598 Reptiles and Birds 599 Mammals Insects, including butterflies would be under 595. Now we have the first three numbers of the call number 595.
The 595's are further divided by the use of decimals to specify what type of insects.--- Beginning to get the picture......the more numbers, the more specific.

500--Natural Science
590--Zoological Sciences
595--Other Invertebrates
	595.7--Insects
	595.78--Lepidoptera
	595.789--Butterflies

Let's practice. Click here. 100 points

Now let's try something more complicated. Click here. 100 points

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Section 4

Not all Dewey classified books are nonfiction. Do you know any that are fiction?

There are four fiction groups that are categorized in the nonfiction.

Folk and fairy tales 398 and 398.2
Riddles 396.6
Poetry 811
Plays 812

Let's review. Click here. 100 points.

Conclusion

During the course of this activity you should have learned:
1. Libraries are organized so that books can easily be found on the shelves. Many libraries use the same system so once you know how to find books in one library; you can use your knowledge in almost any other library, too!
2. Melvil Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal System, and helped libraries in other ways.
3. How the Dewey Decimal System assigns books numbers based on their subject.

References
Dewey Handout http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/printoffs/books1.html
Dewey Webquest http://arapaho.nsuok.edu/~weavera/dewey%20decimal%20web%20quest.htm
Library Thinkquest http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/Basic/cnlook2.htm
Melvil Dewey http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/biography/
Dewey Lesson http://www.evgschool.org/dewey_decimal_classification_sys.htm
Dewey Details http://www.evgschool.org/Dewey_Details.htm

Images
Butterfly   http://www.whenwegetthere.com/tourist_attraction_images/land_tourist_attractions/butterfly_watching/butterfly_watching.jpg
Comedy Tragedy http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/imgs/450/sp0619_450.jpeg
Magnetic Poetry
http://schools.mukilteo.wednet.edu/ma/library/images/poetry%20magnetic%20pieces.jpg
Riddle   http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/riddles.GIF
Fairy Tales http://suziejean.com/4352634.jpg
Melvil Dewey   http://farm1.static.flickr.com/58/200420263_548e3aa413.jpg
100 http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/images/100.gif
200 http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2097/2105959285_f339fe7761.jpg?v=0
300   http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/ebbandflow/images/waves10.jpg
400   http://www.cartype.com/pics/1598/full/400_buick_gs_400_conv_1_69_sm1.jpg
500   http://seriocomic.com/wp-content/plugins/yet-another-photoblog/cache/500.8tkns1vk0hkwk480c8cwwk4so.3n1g5iz0f2kgo4o8wk00gk8s0.th.jpeg
600   http://www.barkersonline.co.nz/data/media/images/Barkers600AliveOfficial.jpg
700   http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/wp-content/assets/2/147/picture1.jpg
800   http://www.core77.com/hack2school/img/cs_800number.jpg
900   http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/1/45king~~~~~_900number_102b.jpg
Dewey to the Rescue http://amityjihimediacenter.homestead.com/files/deweytotherescue.jpg
Dewey Manual http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YWRCDVGHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
Library Map http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/eLearning/Images/LibraryMap.jpg
Dewey Posters http://pinetreemedia.com/catalog/images/44223.jpg
Books by Color   http://www.madebymany.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/big_books.jpg
Dewey Poster http://www.barnstable.k12.ma.us/mme/news/studentinvestigations/WebQuests/dewey/images/dewey.gif

Game Software created using Hot Potatoes http://hotpot.uvic.ca/ for free download