This is Melville Dewey He was a librarian that lived a long time ago. He invented a new way of organizing books in libraries.

Mr. Dewey organized every nonfiction subject into 10 general categories. It’s actually pretty amazing! Think you could come up with 10 broad categories for EVERYTHING in the world?

Here are the 10 general groups for sorting books

in the Dewey Decimal System:

General Works Philosophy Religion Social Studies Language Science Technology Arts and Leisure Literature History/Geography

000s-General Works encyclopedias, almanacs, world record books, unexplained topics

031 WOR 001.94 DON

100s-Philosophy feelings & emotions

152.4 ALI 155.2 KIN

200s-Religion religion, mythology, bible stories

291 MAE 292 LOC 292 OSB

300s-Social Studies holidays, government, celebrations,

military

324.6 MUR 358.9 BUR

394.28 HEI

Fairy tales and folk tales are also placed in the 300s because they

teach traditions, values, and beliefs.

398.2 ALL

398.2 BRE 398.2 MCD

400s-Language grammar & languages

443 KUD 428.2 TER

500s-Science math, natural things,

weather, animals

595.7 SAC 523.8 SIP

513.2 LED

600s-Technology man-made things, pets, farming, vehicles

690 HUD 641.5 VAU 636.8 PER

700s-Arts and Leisure

how to draw, crafts, sports, movies, music

796.44 REA 796.323 KEL 736 KAS

800s-Literature stories, plays, poetry,

jokes, riddles

811 SIL 811 FRA

818 SHO

900s-History/Geography

historical events, other countries, U.S. states

909 BAL 990 FRI 932 CHA