Do You Understand the Logic?

Important Ideas To Understand:

Dewey Decimal numbers are assigned to books using a hierarchy of ideas from general to specific. That means:

1. All big topics are divided into smaller topics.

2. All small topics are part of a bigger topic

3. Once you identify the number for a certain topic, all books with that number will be about the same topic.

4. This system makes sure that books on the same topic will be together on the library shelves because they all will have the same number.

5. If you are looking for information on playing chess, you would look for books with number 794.6 because that is the number for chess BUT you might also look for 794 which would contain information on all indoor games possibly including chess OR 794.64 which is just about chess openings. The numbers are related and so is the content of the books.

   Activity: Logic Line-Up #1 PDF RTF  Activity: Logic Line-Up #2 PDF RTF

Credit: Eugene School District 4J, Eugene, OR, and OSLIS Revision Committee 2002