A Guide to Library Books: The Dewey Decimal System

Help students understand the categories of the Dewey Decimal System, with this chart. This is a very useful library skill.
Grades:
3 |
4 |
5 |
6
Themes:

Imagine walking into a house where room after room is filled with shelves, all packed with books in no specific order. Imagine trying to find the one book you want! That's what happened every day to Melvil Dewey, an American librarian who lived from 1851 to 1931. He became so unhappy trying to help people find books that he invented the Dewey Decimal System of Classification, which is still used in libraries today. The system numbers books by their subject matter in the following way.

Dewey Decimal System

000-099 General Works (Encyclopedias, Magazines, Almanacs, Bibliographies)
100-199 Philosophy, Psychology, Ethics
200-299 Religion and Myths
300-399 Sociology (Civics, Economics, Education)
400-499 Philology (Language, Dictionaries, Grammar)
500-599 Science (Math, Chemistry, Biology, Botany)
600-699 Useful Arts (Medicine, Agriculture, TV)
700-799 Fine Arts (Painting, Music, Photography)
800-899 Literature (Novels, Poetry, Plays)
900-999 History, Geography, Biography
loading gif