Again, sometimes the simplest way to do something is to NOT reinvent the wheel. You can use the Dewey Decimal System to organize and classify your nonfiction books, and it works very well for that purpose. Read more about using Mr. Dewey’s system of classification here (Part 1), and here (Part 2), and here (Part 3). Dewey is not that hard to learn, and it arranges your books into subject categories for you so that you can move on to actually reading the books instead of spending your time organizing and classifying them.

However, some of us like inventing and reinventing, or we want to do things just a little differently from the way Melvil Dewey shelved his books. SO here a few other possible organizational schemes.

Sandy Hall of Hall’s Living Library:

Here’s my list of categories. Basically, it follows the DD system, just by category rather than numbers. Then I alphabetize the books by the author’s last name within each category. I might have added a couple more since I typed up this list.

• Religion – I keep my Bible stories separate, but put other religions here.
• Books and libraries
• Ships/Submarines
• Canals
• Trains/Railroad
• Pony Express – I may put this over with Westward Expansion history section.
• Travel
• Manners/Ethics
• Buildings/Construction
• Military
• Immigration
• Economics
• Slavery
• Education
• Presidency
• Government
• Words/Language
• Mathematics
• Games/Activities/Sports
• Geography – General
• Geography – World
• Geography – United States
• General History
• Ancient World
• Ancient Literature
• Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Rome
• Middle Ages – History
• Crusades
• Middle Ages – Literature
• King Arthur Legends
• Robin Hood Legends
• William Tell Legend
• Vikings
• Renaissance/Reformation
• Pirates
• Exploration
• Europe 1500s-1900s
• Titanic
• World War I
• World War II
• Holocaust
• English History
• Canadian History
• American History – General
• Pilgrims
• Colonial America
• Williamsburg
• American Revolution
• Louisiana Purchase
• Westward Expansion/1800s
• Underground Railroad
• Civil War
• American History late 1800s-1900s
• Native Americans
• Aztecs/Incans/Mayans

Sherry Early, Meriadoc Homeschool Library:

My history books are arranged in chronological order in two areas, one for World History, beginning with General World History books, Creation and Patriarchal Bible Times and ending at the end of the 19th century, in 1899. The other set of shelves are for American History, beginning with general overview and textbooks of American History, then Native American books that do not have a specific date, and then starting about 1500 with the books arranged by the date of the main event covered in the book or the beginning event covered in the book. I also have historical fiction and biographies mixed in with the history books. As the books come into the twentieth century (1900), American history and World history seem to converge, and so the history books beginning in 1900 and beyond are all shelved together, along with historical fiction and biographies from that century. Each book has a call number sticker with the genre abbreviation and the date it is shelved by; for example, H1865 (History, probably has something to do with the Civil War), B385-461 (a biography of St. Patrick), or HF1944 (World War II historical fiction).

Other nonfiction books are shelved in categories with an abbreviation for the “call number”:

• Transportation: TRANS
• Music: MUS
• Art and Crafts: ART
• Dance: DANC
• Drama: DRAMA
• Poetry: POET
• Government: GOV
• Economics: ECO
• Short Stories: SS
• Sports and Hobbies: GAMES

My geography books are shelved by continent. First I have a section of World Geography. Then books about Africa, Asia, Arctic, Antarctica, Australia, North America, South America, and Europe. These books include fiction, nonfiction, myths and legends, folk tales, and general geographical books and have a call number label with the continent abbreviation (WORLD, ASIA, AFR, ANT, ARC, NA, SA, EUR).

Robin Pack, Children’s Legacy Library

Robin uses the following categories for non-science nonfiction:

• AE – Ancient Egypt
• AGR – Agriculture
• AG – Ancient Greece
• AH – Ancient history (more general books)
• ALA – Alamo
• AMH – American history (general)
• AR – Ancient Rome
• ARC – Architecture
• AREV – American Revolution
• ART – Art and artists
• B – Books about books
• BIB – Bible
• BIO – Biography
• BLD – Building
• CAP – California Pioneers
• COL – Colonial
• COMM – Communication
• CW – Civil War
• DEP – Depression Era
• ECO – Economics
• ED – Education
• ENG – Engineering
• EPI – Early pioneers
• ET – Etiquette
• EXP – Exploration
• FIW – French and Indian War
• FL – Family life
• GEO – Geography (general)
• GEOA – American Geography
• GEOW – World Geography
• GR – Gold Rush
• GOV – Government
• HEC – Home Ec
• HND – Handicrafts
• HOL – Holidays
• IND – Indians
• JAM – Jamestown
• LAN – Language
• LP – Louisiana Purchase
• LPI – Later Pioneers
• LSC – Landscape
• MA – Middle Ages
• MAN – Manufacturing
• MED – Medicine
• MIL – Military
• MME – Mountain Men
• MPI – Middle Pioneers
• MUS – Music and Composers
• OT – Oregon Trail
• PE – Pony Express
• PI – People groups/Immigration
• PIL – Pilgrims
• POST – Later 20th century
• REC – Reconstruction period
• REL – Religions/mythology
• ROA – Roanoke
• RR – Renaissance/Reformation
• SAW – Spanish/American war
• SFT – Santa Fe Trail
• SHK – Shakespeare
• SPR – Sports and Recreation
• SW – Stories Around the World (inc. legends, fairy tales, etc)
• TR – Transportation
• UGR – Underground Railroad/Slavery
• W12- War of 1812
• WW – Wild West/Cowboys
• WWI – World War I
• WWII – World War II

Then within each category, the books will simply be numbered 1,2,3… If I have eight books on the colony of Roanoke, they will be labeled ROA-1, ROA-2, ROA-3, ROA-4, etc. This is what will be listed as the call number in my database and this is what will be on the spine. 

So, there you go. Use Mr. Dewey’s classification system for nonfiction books, use some of our quirky categories, or make up your own. Just make sure you have some system that enables you to find the books you need when you need them and serves your library patrons well.

This post is part of our Ask The Librarian series, a Card Catalog Project. You can find more like this here. And, we would love to connect with you! You can find us on Facebook here.