Locating a Book

Call Number | Understanding the Logic | Locating a Book

Books using the Dewey Decimal system are in numerical order.
If you can count, you already have a good idea about which book comes first.
If you already understand decimal order from your math class, you already understand the trickiest part of locating books using the Dewey decimal system. It is exactly the same.

Why do you need to understand this to find books in the library?

 

                                      Books 1

These books are in correct Dewey decimal order. It is just like counting.
Notice that the only time we worry about the alphabetical order in the
second line is when the Dewey number is exactly the same.
You can see this in the 567 books.

 

                                  Books 2

These books are also in correct order. If you think they are not in order it is
probably because you think that .413 is a bigger number than .51 or .51 is a
bigger number than .7 but that is not true. Although .413 is longer, it is not more.

 

In the library, you can't put zeros on the books so it is best to think about the point where the numbers become different.

Compare                 365.413      and          365.51

The 3, 6, and 5 are all the same.
The 4 and the 5 are different.
The 4 is smaller so it would come first.
It doesn't matter how many other numbers come after it.

 

 

 

 

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