NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD presents

Issue 02 . June 2015

BookBirth

Something about Numbersof a

BookNATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD presents

SOMETHING ABOUT NUMBERS

�e International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

By the time you see a book on a shelf, it has already undergone numerous processes of conceptualisation, writing, editing and design. �at’s not the end of the publishing process - there remains the book’s identity number. It’s called the International Standard Book Number (ISBN), a unique set of 13 numbers a book is identi�ed by. Book populations worldwide have grown exponentially since the invention of the printing press. An ISBN helps one locate a speci�c copy of a particular title in the sea of cover faces. ISBN can tell you a book’s geographic location, its publisher and its particular edition. Do you know that the ISBN of an e-book of the same title is di�erent from its print version? Each ISBN is so unique that it cannot be transferred, reused, or resold.

Periodicals and music scores have their own number formats, which are respectively the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and International Standard Music Number (ISMN).

�e Dewey Decimal Classi�cation

�e Dewey Decimal Classi�cation (DDC) gives a book its address in the library. Named after the founder of library classi�cation, Melvil Dewey, this system allows for di�erent topics to be arranged di�erently into ten classes, from Computer Science and Information Systems (Call Number 000s), Art and Recreation (Class 700s) to History and Geography (Call Number 900s). �ese numbers are further subdivided within each class. �e DDC can be found on the spine labels of library materials and shelved according to their call numbers (except for magazines).

CALL NUMBERS TO PURSUE

Architect

Literary Writer

Sculptor/ Ceramist

Graphic & Decorative Artist

760

770

750

740

Printmaker

Photographer & Film-Maker/ Animator

Performer

Musician

790

800

780

Painter

Landscape Architect

720

730

710

– A.A. Milne

When I was one,I had just begun.

When I was two,I was nearly new.

When I was three,I was hardly me.When I was four,

I was not much more.When I was five,I was just alive.

But now I am six,I'm as clever as clever.So I think I'll be sixnow and forever.

RECOMMENDED READS

Books Make a Home: Elegant Ideas for Storing and Displaying Books By Damian �ompsonRyland Peters & Small, London, UK; New York, USA, 2011Call Number: English 747.9 THO

All Rights Reserved

Written by Joey Chin and Chen JieyunEdited by Ilyani Suhaimi

�e Book on the Bookshelf By Henry PetroskiAlfred A. Knopf, New York, USA, 2000Call Number: English 022.409 PET

All Rights Reserved

A Pound of Paper: Confessionsof a Book AddictBy John BaxterSt. Martin's Gri�n, New York, USA, 2005.Call Number: English 002.075 BAX

All Rights Reserved

Unpacking My Library: Writers and their BooksEdited by Leah PriceYale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, 2011.Call Number: English 028.9 UNP

All Rights Reserved

Birth