Materials in BGU Library are arranged on the shelves according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system.
This system was introduced in summer 2019 when the library team undertook a major project to change classification systems, from Bliss Classification to Dewey Decimal Classification.
The only area of the Library still classified according to Bliss is the Lincolnshire Collection on the first floor. Children's resources in the Teaching Resources Collection are classified using a simplified 'School's Dewey' version of Dewey Decimal Classification.
First, find the book's shelfmark using our online catalogue, WorldCat. Once you have the shelfmark, go to the correct floor (shelfmarks 000-613 are on the ground floor and 614-999 on the first floor) and use the guiding at the ends of the shelving rows to find the correct section.
Shelfmarks are displayed on the spines of the books, followed by the first three letters of the author's surname (or 'suffix'), e.g. ‘150 GRO’. The suffix allows books to be arranged in Dewey order and then in author order. Books with no suffix (e.g. books with no named author) are shelved together at the start of the designated shelfmark.
There are tutorials available here to help you, but if you have any difficulty, don't hesitate to ask for help!
Developed in 1873 by American librarian and educator Melvil Dewey (1851-1931), and first published in 1878, the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme (DDC, or just ‘Dewey’) is the most common library classification system in the world and is used by most school, public and college libraries in the UK, as well as many university libraries.
Dewey is a numerical system beginning at 000 and ending at 999. It places all knowledge into ten main classes, as follows:
000 Computer science, information and general works
100 Philosophy and psychology
200 Religion
300 Social Sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Arts and Recreation
800 Literature
900 History and Geography
Dewey shelfmarks are always at least three digits long, e.g. 150 is the shelfmark for developmental psychology.
If a subject needs to be further sub-divided a decimal point is placed between the third and fourth digits, e.g. 155.4 is the shelfmark for child psychology. BGU shelfmarks never contain more than eight digits (five digits after the decimal point).
Click here for a summary of the Dewey scheme by OCLC Inc. (the organisation responsible for its publication); pages 1-5 introduce the scheme and the summaries start on page 6. Use Ctrl-F on your keyboard to search for subjects.