Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills Library Search Strategies

Do you struggle when you try to find resources in a library? Library Search Strategies - Introduction Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills This module is designed to introduce you to the Dewey Decimal Classification system and provide you with skills to help you use a library catalogue effectively. Well, look no further!

What is Dewey? Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills What is Dewey 1.Libraries use a numerical classification system to categorise books. This is known as the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system, or Dewey for short. 2.The numbers looks something like this …

Understanding Dewey – Why? Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills The Library Catalogue can also be called an OPAC which means Online Public Access Catalogue Why do I need to know about Dewey? An understanding of Dewey will allow you to browse the shelves to find books and other resources for your subjects, but to find out if a particular item is in stock you must use the Library Catalogue. We will look at the Catalogue in more detail later in the module, but first let’s look at Dewey.

Imagine Dewey is a small forest Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills And each tree represents a section of Dewey 000 Computers and Generalities 100 Philosophy & Psychology 200 Religion 300 Social Sciences 400 Language 500 Science and Mathematics 600 Technology (Applied Sciences) 700 Arts and Recreation 800 Literature 900 Geography & History Each tree represents a section of Dewey

Dewey structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills 700 Arts 710 Landscaping and area planning 720 Architecture 730 Sculpture, ceramics and metalwork 750 Painting 760 Graphic arts 770 Photography and computer art 780 Music 740 Drawing and decorative arts 790 Sports, games and entertainment And each of the branches on each tree represents a subject area within that section Let’s look at the 700’s – Arts and Recreation

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills Now lets look at the smaller branches in more detail 790 Sports, games and entertainment … 790 Recreational and performing arts 791 Public performances 792 Stage presentations 793 Indoor games and amusements 794 Indoor games of skill 795 Games of chance 796 Athletic and outdoor sports and games 797 Aquatic and air sports 798 Equestrian sports and animal racing 799 Fishing, hunting and shooting

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills So we’ve covered the first three numbers that appear in Dewey but what about any numbers that appear after a decimal point? These numbers could be called the leaves of the tree and make the subject more specific, for example … = football

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills To understand this further lets look at the leaves for one of the branches in more detail 796 … Athletic and outdoor sports and games Miscellaneous games Activities and games requiring equipment Ball games Weight lifting, track and field, gymnastics Outdoor life Cycling and related activities Driving motor vehicles Combat sports Ice and snow sports

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills By adding these extra numbers after a decimal point, we can be much more specific so that locating books on the shelf becomes easier. Let’s look more closely at the specific number for Ball games – 796.3

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills can include a lot of ball games, therefore Dewey divides the information further (this is where a tree would bear it’s fruit!) Ball thrown or hit by hand Inflated ball thrown or hit by hand Inflated ball driven by foot Racket games Ball driven by club, mallet, bat

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills Cricket becomes Football becomes Hockey becomes Golf becomes Numbers continue to be added to the right of the decimal point until we reach the final number for the specific topic

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills So, if we saw we wanted a book on football we might assume that it would fall under 796 – the number for athletic and outdoor sports and games. This would be correct, but if we put all the books covering athletic and outdoor sports at the same number we would never find the actual book we needed.

Dewey Structure Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills These numbers divide the subject into more specific subjects For a book on mountain biking see For a book on Ice hockey see

I’ll never remember all those numbers! Library Catalogue Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills That’s okay because we have a library catalogue that allows you to search for the books you need. The next section will look at this in more depth.

EMIS Partners Presentation Title Here 18 pt Arial East Midlands Information Skills