5Ws+1H: What It's About: Dewey Decimal system helps with library organization

Dec. 14—While different literature providers use various informational systems, the Tahlequah Public Library has relied on the Dewey Decimal Classification for many years.

TPL Branch Manager Jeremy Jones said the library, which is part of the Eastern Oklahoma Library System, yses the Dewey Decimal Classification as a form of universal categorization that organizes media materials through the use of set numbers.

"What [Melvil Dewey] did was he set up these overall headings, and then they're broken down within those headings into subheadings or sub-subjects," Jones said.

The subjects, including philosophy, religion, science, etc., are all classified under a certain set of numbers: philosophy is 100, religion is 200, and science is 500. These subjects are then broken up into about eight more topics, such as the science classification containing math at 510 or astronomy at 520.

The topics get even more specific as the next nine numerals in each section narrow the topics further, like 512 being considered algebra and 519 being the applied mathematics and probabilities section. To search specific book titles, more numbers are added after a decimal. To help with the identification process for specific books, three letters are often inserted after the numbers, signifying the author.

For example, the book "A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey From the Street to the Stars," by Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz, is in the science division, under the astronomy sub-subject, and placed under the subdivision of biography and history. This gives the book the identification number of 520.92 Olu.

"It's a very popular universal coding system," Jones said. "It works really well, and it is easily modifiable. He made it to be modifiable as we go forward in time."

Jones said while the system does have many positives, there are also some drawbacks. Subjects like technology — 600 — are almost "boxed in" with as many advancements that have been made. The Dewey Decimal Classification system is used throughout the library with DVDS, audiobooks, and more. The only section at TPL that does not go by Dewey is the fiction section. That's because there is so much fiction literature that it's best to categorize it by author.

Not all libraries and book providers use the system. Jones said as there are other ways of classification that some prefer, like the Book Industry Standard.