Post Archives: Homeschool Books & Libraries

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-lc-classification

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month for the past year we’ve invited you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. Our survey for the year is done — hooray! — and if you’ve been following along with us, you’ve explored the whole of knowledge (!), from our Dewey introduction (September), to the General 000s (October), the Philosophical 100s (November), the Religious 200s (December), the Social 300s (January), the Linguistic 400s (February), the Scientific 500s (March), the Technological 600s (April), the Artistic 700s (May), the Literary 800s (June), and the Historical 900s (July). Whew!

The Dewey system is the standard in American public libraries, and if your students are familiar with it they’ll be right at home in a small-town library near you and in a big-city library across the country — a lifetime of learning will be open to them.

But the Dewey system isn’t the world’s only library classification system. Most other countries have their own national systems that are suited to their local interests and their local library collections (although some of these are modified versions of the Dewey system).

And there’s also one other big library classification system in use in the United States that your students will almost certainly encounter if they go off to college: the Library of Congress Classification system.

The Library of Congress is Washington is the largest library in the world, and at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Dewey Decimal Classification was coming into common use in most public libraries, Herbert Putnam (1861–1955), the Librarian of Congress, wondered if LC could come up with something more suited to their own vast and ever-growing collections. The result was the Library of Congress Classification, which can accommodate deeper and broader collections more easily, and which is easier to expand than the Dewey system.

While the top level of the Dewey system is based on numbers — the 100s, the 200s, the 300s, and so on — the Library of Congress system is based on letters: Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and so on. (And you can see right away that it can have up to 26 top-level categories, instead of the ten that are available in Dewey.)

Most public libraries use the Dewey system, but most college and university libraries use the Library of Congress system. If you have a local university library near you, why not pay it a visit with your students and see how it is arranged. These are the main classes in the LC system:

• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION
• • Class A – General Works
  • Class B – Philosophy, Psychology, & Religion
  • Class C – Auxiliary Sciences of History
  • Class D – World History & History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
  • Class E – History of America
  • Class F – Local History of the Americas
  • Class G – Geography, Anthropology, & Recreation
  • Class H – Social Sciences
  • Class J – Political Science
  • Class K – Law
  • Class L – Education
  • Class M – Music
  • Class N – Fine Arts
  • Class P – Language & Literature
  • Class Q – Science
  • Class R – Medicine
  • Class S – Agriculture
  • Class T – Technology
  • Class U – Military Science
  • Class V – Naval Science
  • Class Z – Bibliography & Library Science

Just as the top-level Dewey classes are subdivided into “tens” — the 500s (Science) is subdivided into the 510s, the 520s, the 530s, and so on — the Library of Congress system creates first-level subdivisions by adding another letter: Class Q (Science) is subdivided into QA (Mathematics), QB (Astronomy), QC (Physics), QD (Chemistry), and so on.

Take out your copy of our recommended homeschool bird guide, the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and turn to the copyright page at the very end of the volume after the index. There in the fine print you’ll see all the publication details for the book, and as in most titles published today, you’ll also see recommended library call numbers. The recommended Dewey number shown is 598.297 (remember the 500s are Science and the 590s are Zoology), and right above that you’ll see the recommended Library of Congress number: QL681.F53. “Q” is Science, “QL” is Zoology (Animals), and all the numbers from QL670 to QL699 cover Birds.

You may never have occasion to use the Library of Congress system — Dewey is more than adequate for most general libraries — but if you do run across it, don’t panic. It’s just another arrangement, running from AA to ZZ instead of 000 to 999. The skills that your students develop learning Dewey will serve them well if they ever happen to encounter this alternative library “language.”

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your public library lately? Or, what lovely letters have you discovered thanks to the Library of Congress? 😊

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-900

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July (that’s today!), you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for July is the 900s, which covers History and Geography. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 900s” means the numbers running from 900 to 999.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Historical (and Geographical) 900s:

• CLASS 900 – HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
• • 900 – History (General)
  • 910 – Geography & Travel
  • 920 – Biography & Genealogy
  • 930 – History of the Ancient World (to ca. 499)
  • 940 – History of Europe
  • 950 – History of Asia
  • 960 – History of Africa
  • 970 – History of North America
  • 980 – History of South America
  • 990 – History of Other Areas

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 950s (History of Asia) you’ll find works on the history of China (951), the history of Japan (952), the history of India (954), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, the history of South America, you’ll find it in the 980s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “920 … 940 … 960 … here it is, 980.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

This concludes our annual homeschool Dewey Decimal survey. We started back in September and October with our initial introduction to the Dewey system and with the General 000s, and now we’ve come all the way to the Historical & Geographical 900s. We’ll have one more post next month — “Beyond Dewey” — but before you leave all these delightful decimals, what’s at the very end? On your next library visit, be sure to drop in on one of my own favorite numbers of all: 999, “Extraterrestrial Worlds.” 🌌 👽 🚀 🔭

What treasures have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 900s, one in the 910s, one in the 920s, one in the 930s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 900) and the very last book in the class (the highest 999). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-800 😊

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for June is the 800s, which covers Literature. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 800s” means the numbers running from 800 to 899.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Literary 800s:

• CLASS 800 – LITERATURE
• • 800 – Literature, Rhetoric, & Criticism (General)
  • 810 – American Literature in English
  • 820 – English & Old English Literatures
  • 830 – German & Related Literatures
  • 840 – French & Related Literatures
  • 850 – Italian, Romanian, & Related Literatures
  • 860 – Spanish, Portuguese, & Galician Literatures
  • 870 – Latin & Italic Literatures
  • 880 – Classical & Modern Greek Literatures
  • 890 – Other Literatures

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 860s (Spanish Literature) you’ll find works on Spanish Drama (862), Spanish Essays (864), Spanish Speeches (865), Spanish Humor & Satire (867), and so on.

So this month if you’ve got a homeschool student in love with the monsters and heroes of Beowulf, the place to go is 829 (Anglo-Saxon Literature). A future Classical scholar? Head for 881 (Classical Greek Poetry). A future student of American Indian history? Try 897 (Literatures of North American Native Languages).

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, Latin Literature, you’ll find it in the 870s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “820 … 840 … 860 … here it is, 870.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 800s, one in the 810s, one in the 820s, one in the 830s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 800) and the very last book in the class (the highest 899). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Looking in the lexicon: The Dewey system attempts to encompass the whole of knowledge, so there’s a good chance it will introduce your students to subjects and terminology they haven’t encountered before. In the Literary 800s, for example, they may come across familiar language terms like “French” and “Spanish,” but what about “Anglo-Saxon,” “Occitan,” “Catalan,” “Corsican,” “Semitic,” and “Dravidian”? During or after your library visit, then, why not send your students to your family dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) or to any dictionary sitting open in the library reference room and invite them to investigate some distinguished Dewey-inspired literary vocabulary. 📖

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚