Fiction & Wrap-Up

Bailey, S. (2010). Track Down Dewey Template.pdf. Retrieved from

http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/Dewey+Decimal+System

Before you can "Track Down a Good Book with Dewey" there's one section of the library we still need to discuss, Fiction. Remember, fiction books are made up by the author. They are also written for your reading enjoyment.

Here at Southern Elementary School our Fiction section is divided into two separate parts. Easy Reader books are for students who are learning to read and Fiction (or chapter books) are for more advanced readers. Look for the signs showing where each type of books is located.

The first line of the call number for Easy Reader books is E. The first line for the Fiction books is FIC.

Fiction and Easy Reader books are arranged on their shelves in alphabetical order by the author's last name. (The first three letters of the author's last name are the bottom line of the call number on the spine of the book). When you read a book you like, it's easy to find other books by the same author because they are together on the shelf.



Your final assignment in "Track Down a Good Book with Dewey" is to go to this Dewey Decimal Game and play it. Then post a two-part comment.

First, tell how many of the game questions you answered correctly the first time and then write the most important thing you learned about the library from this blog.

Example Comment:
I answered 9 of the Dewey Decimal Game questions correctly the first time.
From this blog I learned the 10 Dewey Decimal Classes and how to find information in them.

Dewey 700-900 Numbers

Bailey, S. (2010). Wordle 700 Art and Play Template.pdf. Retrieved
from http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/Dewey+Decimal+System

Other titles for the 700 to 900 Dewey Decimal Classes are

700 Art and Play
800 Literature
900 Geography and History

Here are some favorite topics in the 700 - 900 Dewey classes.

736 Origami
743.6 How to Draw
745.5 Crafts
793.73 Look & Find Books
796.323 Basketball
796.332 Football
796.357 Baseball
811 Poetry
818 Jokes & Riddles
910 Geography
92 & 920 Biographies
940.53 World War II
970 Native Americans
973 U.S. History

In our library at Southern Elementary School, biographies of a single person are given the number 92 and put in alphabetical order according to the last name of the person the biography is about. The number 920 is given to biographies of more than one person and they are on the shelves in order of the last name of the author of the biography.

Still more about Call Numbers

Last time I showed you how call numbers can go from general to specific to help you find information. Now I'll also show you how they can go from specific to general. If you're looking for a book on ice hockey with the number of 796.962, but when you get to the shelf, it isn't there, you're not out of luck yet. Drop back to 796.96, Ice Games, and look for information about ice hockey. If that doesn't help you, drop back to 796.9, Ice and Snow Sports, for information on ice hockey. You could drop back even further, but the encyclopedias in the Reference section would also be helpful.

Country Research

Let's say you're doing a report on Spain and the search computer gives you the number of 914.6. That's the number for the geography of Spain. If the books in that section don't help you with your report, there's still another place to look. It's a little tricky, but you drop the 1 from the number and move the decimal over one place to the right.

914.6 becomes 946.

This new number, 946, is the history of Spain and should give you more information for your report.

For your assignment, choose a book that's a biography, then post a comment, first listing its call number, title and author. Then tell whether its a biography of one person or more than one, using the call number to justify your decision. Choose a book no one else has used for this assignment.

Example comment:
92 Who Was Abraham Lincoln? by Janet Pascal
LIN
This biography is about one person because the Dewey number is 92 and the letters, LIN, are the first three letters of Abraham Lincoln's last name.

Dewey 500-600 Numbers

Bailey, S. (2010). Wordle 500 Science & Math Template.pdf. Retrieved
from http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/Dewey+Decimal+System

The Dewey classes 500 and 600 both contain science and that can be confusing. But remember that the 500 numbers are about what we call natural science and the 600 numbers are about applied science. The 500's contain things as they are found in nature, unchanged by humans. The 600's show inventions and technology and how man uses nature.

Look at the following popular topics and see if you can tell the difference.

523 Stars and Planets
551 Weather
567 Dinosaurs
582 Plants
595 Insects
595.44 Spiders
597.3 Sharks
598 Birds
599.8 Monkeys
629 Airplanes
629.28 Cars
629.4 Space Flight
636 Domestic Animals
641.5 Cookbooks

Here's an example, horses are found in both the 500 and 600 numbers. Wild horses are 599.665 and horses for riding are 636.1.


More about Call Numbers

Have you ever wondered why some call numbers are longer than others? The reason is that, the more numbers you add, the more specific the topic gets.

If you were doing a report on dogs, you would first look in the 600s, Applied Science. But there are hundreds of books in 600, so you need to narrow your search. You can add a 3, making 630, to get to Agriculture, but there are still too many books there to look through. Add a 6, making 636, to get to Domesticated Animals (animals that are tamed, not wild). But you need to narrow your search even further.

All Call Numbers have three numbers to the left of the decimal point, so to narrow your search further you need to add a number to the right of the decimal. Add a 7 to get 636.7 which is the topic number for dogs.

You could quit there since your report is on dogs, but you could also get even more specific. Add a 5, making 636.75 to get Sporting Dogs, Hounds and Terriers. If you wanted to find dachshunds, you would add a 3 to make your number 636.753 and that is the number for dachshunds.

Most elementary school libraries limit their numbers to two beyond the decimal point. Our library at Southern Elementary has two major exceptions, holidays in 394 and wild mammals in 599.

Don't worry about memorizing all these specific numbers, use the search computer in the library to find the numbers you need and then look for the books on the shelf, first finding the major class number section, then "reading" the shelves, from left to right and top to bottom.



Your assignment is to find a book in the 500 or 600 sections of the library with two (or more) numbers to the right of the decimal point. Post a comment listing the call number, title, author and whether the book is natural or applied science. Do not comment on the same book someone else has used.

Example Comment:
599.665 Wild Horses I Have Known, by Hope Ryden
RYD
This is a natural science book.

Dewey 000 - 400 Numbers

Bailey, S. (2010). Wordle 300 Our Society.pdf. Retrieved from

http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/Dewey+Decimal+System

We've learned a simple way to remember the 10 Main Dewey Classes, but they also have other titles. The first five could be called

000 General Stuff (or Generalities)
100 Feeling, Thinking, Believing
200 Religion
300 Our Society
400 Languages

You can see how these are just bigger words that mean the same things.

Some favorite topics in the 000-400 classes are

001.9 UFOs
004 Computer Science
031 Books of World Records
133.1 Ghosts
158.1 Chicken Soup for the Soul
292 Greek & Roman Mythology
333 Environment
394.26 Holidays
395 Manners
398 Fairy Tales
419 Sign Language


The 000 class was Dewey's room-to-grow category for things that didn't fit anywhere else, including mysteries and books that contain information from a variety of the major classes. Mr. Dewey lived before the age of computers and these have been added to the 000 class.

Encyclopedias and similar general works would be classified as 030. Many libraries, including ours at Southern Elementary School, keep encyclopedias in a special section marked Reference. Dictionaries, which would be numbered 423, are in the Reference section as well. Atlases (maps) are also kept there. Consult the Reference section when you need answers to a specific question or assistance in beginning to research a topic.


Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Do you know the difference between books that are fiction and nonfiction?
Nonfiction books are about real people, things, events and places and they are true.
Fiction books are made up by the author and are not true.

To put it simply:
Fiction books are not true
Nonfiction books are true

Books with Dewey numbers are generally considered to be nonfiction but the Dewey Decimal System does contain books that are fictional. For example, fairy tales in 398, theater plays in 792, and literature in the 800's were all made up by authors and would not be considered true. These are the major examples. There is a Dewey number (813) for fiction books but most libraries, including ours, put fiction books in a separate section. We'll discuss that section later.


Your assignment is to choose a book and post a comment about it, stating its call number, title, author and whether it is a fiction or nonfiction book. Do not choose a book someone has already commented on.

Example post:
398.2 Classic Fairy Tales by Scott Gustafson
GUS
This is a fiction book.

Call Numbers

We're going to talk about call numbers shortly, but first, let’s review the 10 Main Dewey Classes, using our simple way to remember them.

100 Think of #1 - Me
200 How did I get here?
300 Who is my neighbor?
400 How do I talk to my neighbor?
500 What do I talk about?
600 What can I make?
700 Fun & Games
800 What makes us who we are?
900 How did it happen?
000 Room to grow

Oracle Think Quest.(1999).Basic/img19.gif. Retrieved from

http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/Harder/500600.htm?tqskip=1

Before we look deeper into the Dewey Decimal System, let’s cover a few basics like those call numbers.

Call numbers could be called the “address” of books in the library, since they tell where the books “live” on the shelves. Call numbers are located near the bottom of the book on the spine, as the diagram shows. Dewey Decimal numbers are used in many call numbers. But not all call numbers actually have numbers in them. We'll learn more about that later.

The bottom letters of the call number are the first three letters of the author’s last name.

Library books in the nonfiction section are arranged on the shelves in order by their numbers. Each Dewey number has to have 3 numbers to the left of the decimal point, even if some of them are zeros (like 001.9). The nonfiction section of our library at Southern Elementary School starts with the 000 section and ends with 999.

When you're looking for a book, with a Dewey number like 152.4, first look for the sign on top of the bookshelf that says, " 100 Thinking, Feeling, Believing". Then you can "read" the shelves like you read the pages of a book, from left to right and top to bottom. Start at the left on the top shelf and move to the right till the shelf ends. Then go to the next shelf beneath it and move left to right. When you've read the bottom shelf, move to the bookshelf on the right and start over until you find your number.


For your assignment, post a comment listing a favorite book by its call number, title and author. Do not choose the same book someone else has used.

Example comment:
808.3 S is for Story, by Esther Hershenhorn
HER

Getting Started

Welcome to "Track Down a Good Book with Dewey"!

Before we can find a good book, we need to know where to look. This slide show explains how libraries came to be organized and gives an easy way to remember that organization. Please click on the arrow to view it.

For your assignment, go to Dewey Browse. Click on the numbers to browse for a web site on a favorite topic. Then post a comment listing the title of your web site, its URL (that's the web address) and its Dewey classification number. Do not choose the same web site someone else has used.

Here's a sample comment:
Iditarod: Race Across Alaska
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/iditarod/index.htm
Dewey # 796.9