Anatomy of a HarpoolLibrary Book

• Title• Author(s)• Spine Label• Call Number

• In this case, Nonfiction Dewey 636.1 is about horses

• **The spine label also shows what collection in the library by color coding on the label

Fiction & Nonfiction

What is the difference?

Nonfiction books start with a Dewey Decimal number, like 636.1, which is horses, or 796.332, which is football.

factbooks

In the library, fiction books have FIC on the spine label.

…pleasure reading …from author’s

imagination

…make believe

Melvil DeweyMelvil Dewey was born in 1851 in New York. As an adult, he worked in a library and noticed that of all the libraries he visited, none of them organized books in the same way. Each had their own way of organizing books on the shelves.

He thought all libraries should organize books using the same system. So, he developed the Dewey Decimal System for organizing books in libraries. Libraries across the country began adopting this system.

His goal in creating the Dewey Decimal System was to assign a specifc number to

ALL books based on their subject…

…ALL BOOKS!!!http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/about/dewey.html

Images courtesy of University of Wisconsin

http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/about/dewey.html

law

football

cook books

card games

ghosts

Earth

978JAM

cowboys

http:

//w

ww

.libr

ary.

illin

ois.

edu/

ugl/a

bout

/dew

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LIBRARIANS & LIBRARIES

SLIGHTLY

CHANGED DEWEY’S PLAN TO

MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU…

FICTION COLLECTION

ANIMÉ

Graphic novels

Comics

The Harpool LibraryCOLLECTIONS…

http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/about/dewey.html

REFERENCE collection

NONFICTION collection

Both of these books are Dewey 328, which is legislation, or law.

NonfictionFiction…make believe

…pleasure reading

…from author’simagination

Facts,REALINFO

BIOGRAPHY

COLLECTIVE BIOGRAPHY

GRAPHICS NOVELS, COMICS

STORY COLLECTION

EVERYBODY/PICTURE BOOKS

…with some exceptions

Sub-collections in Fiction, color coded:

Sub-collections in Nonfiction, color coded:

N O

N F

I C

T I O

NF

I C T

I O

N

Call number on spine label:

398.2SAN

Call number on spine label:

741.5DAV

nonfiction

nonfiction

What can you tell me about these books?

Call number on spine label:

822.3SHA

Call number on spine label:

821.914FAN

nonfiction

nonfiction

What can you tell me about these books?