This library uses the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme (DDC) to arrange books and other library materials on the shelves so they may be easily retrieved. It is used in many libraries and allows items about the same subject to be shelved together.
Who was Dewey?
Melville Dewey, was born on December 10, 1851 to a poor family living in a small town in northern New York. He is known as the Father of Librarianship because he devised the system that is commonly used in many Libraries in the world.
While working at his college Library, he saw the limitations of the current system of classification in Libraries. Classification systems used a fixed design where each book was given a dedicated spot on the shelf. This meant that when items were added to the collection, the whole lot changed position on the shelves and things became out of order. Another problem was that no two libraries used the same system, making it awkward for users and librarians to use different collections.
Dewey devised a system of decimal numbers to categorize books according to subject. He received permission from Amherst College, where he was studying, to apply his new system to their library. Amherst published his system in a pamphlet entitled A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library in 1875 which is now in its 22nd edition and contained in four volumes.
How does the Dewey Decimal system work?
DDC is a hierarchical number system that organizes all human knowledge into 10 main categories. These are:
000 Generalities (includes computing)
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Languages
500 Natural sciences and mathematics
700 The arts
900 Geography and history
Each main category is then divided into 10 sub-categories. For example:
310 General statistics
320 Politics
330 Economics
340 Law
350 Public administration
360 Social services
370 Education
380 Commerce, communications, transport
390 Customs, etiquette, folklore
Each sub-category is then also divided into 10 specific topics. For example:
361 General social problems
362 Social welfare problems and services
363 Other social problems and services
364 Criminology
365 Penal and related institutions
366 Associations
367 General clubs
368 Insurance
369 Miscellaneous kinds of Associations
Each of these topics may be further divided into more specific subject areas. A decimal point is used after the first three digits to separate the specific subjects - it also makes the numbers easier to read. You will see that as the subject becomes more specific, so does the numbering. For example:
361.322 Interviewing
361.323 Counselling
DDC at West Suffolk College
When an item arrives in the library it is assigned a DDC number, often called the “classmark” or “shelfmark”. Each of the numbers in this classmark has a meaning and is not assigned randomly.
For example, the book “The Lure of dreams: Sigmund Freud and the construction of modernity” by Harvie Ferguson is assigned the number 154.63 FER
Most items will also be assigned some letters at the end of the numerals, “FER” in the above example. These are taken from the author’s surname.
The classmark will always have at least three numbers, followed by some letters. It is usually displayed on the spine of the item. The DDC system places items about the same subject at the same number. This means that once you have identified the DDC number for the subject you are interested in, you can browse the shelves at that number.
On each shelf the items are arranged in a numerical sequence from left to right by their DDC number. Where several items have an identical DDC number, the letters are used to further arrange them. For example,
361. 361. 361. 363. 363. 363.
3 32 32 35 377 377
HIG BOR STO CIV PRE PRO
Finding e-books
Simply click on the link in the catalogue record or in Library+ – you don’t need to find it with class number because it won't be on the shelf!