Ask The Librarian, Book Organization, Classification, Librarian

How do I organize and shelve science books?

Posted by semicolonsherry on

The default way to classify, shelve, and organize all of your books is to use the Dewy Decimal system. Read more about Dewey in our article: “Ask the Librarian About Classification: What is the Dewy Decimal System, and how can I use it?” However, if you’ve decided against Dewey for whatever reason, what other system can you use to classify your science books?

You can start out by just putting all of your science books on one shelf or set of shelves. Arrange them alphabetically by the author’s last name, and voila! You now have an organized science shelf, and you know exactly where to find each and every science book in your collection, as long as you know that it’s a science book and you know the author’s last name.

When you outgrow this method and find that you want the chemistry books to live separately from the animal books, you can try one of these classification schemes.

Sandy Hall of Hall’s Living Library has this set of categories, based on the seven days of creation in Genesis, chapter 1:

  • Day 1: Atoms   Molecules   Elements   Universe   Earth   Water   Time   Chemistry   Sound   Energy   Light   Friction   Gravity   Magnetism
  • Day 2: Sky   Atmosphere   Clouds   Weather   Air
  • Day 3: Habitats/Ecosystems:  Ponds   Lakes   Rivers   Caves   Swamps   Grasslands   Forests   Mountains   Deserts   Arctic/Antarctic   Seashores   Islands   Land Soil   Rocks/Minerals   Gems   Stones   Geology  Plants   Mushrooms/Fungi   Grains/Seeds   Flowers   Trees   Vegetation
  • Day 4: Sun   Stars   Planets   Moon   Space   Seasons
  • Day 5: Fish   Shellfish   Birds
  • Day 6: Insects   Reptiles/Amphibians   Animals   Man/Anatomy
  • Dominion: Whaling   Vehicles   Inventions   Electricity   Technology   Experiments   Space Exploration   Cloth/Clothing   Food Production   Flight   Machines
  • Then collections of authors: Thornton Burgess, Sam Campbell, and Ernest Thompson Seton. 

Sandy has a sign near her science section to explain these categories for her patrons and a spine label on each book to show which category and sub-category it belongs in.

Sherry Early of Meriadoc Homeschool Library has her own set of categories. Her science books are shelved in no particular order in the following categories:

  • General Science (labeled GS)
  • Astronomy (ASTR)
  • Biology (BIOL)
  • Botany (BOTA)
  • Chemistry (CHEM)
  • Geology (GEOL)
  • Human Anatomy (and Physiology) (HuAn) Includes books about doctors and medicine
  • Marine Biology (MARI)
  • Meteorology (METE) Weather and seasons
  • Physical Science (PHYS) Physics and other physical science topics
  • Zoology (ZOOL)
  • Engineering and Technology (ENG/TECH)
  • Mathematics (MATH)
  • Transportation (TRANS)

The Zoology books are the only ones that are divided by sub-categories: general animal books first, then, Invertebrates, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Insects, Mammals, Reptiles. Each book has a round colored stick-on dot with an abbreviation for the category it belongs in, and books are shelved accordingly.

Robin Pack of Children’s Legacy Library in Tennessee uses still another similar set of categories:

  • AGR–agriculture
  • AST–astronomy
  • BIR–birds
  • COMM–communication
  • EAR–Earth science
  • HAB–Habitats
  • HB–Human body
  • INS–Insects
  • MAM–Mammals
  • MAN–Manufacturing
  • MED–Medicine
  • NG–Nature guides
  • PLA–Plants
  • RA–Reptiles/Amphibians
  • SCI–Science (general)
  • TR–Transportation

Then, within each category the books will simply be numbered 1,2,3 . . . If the library has eight books on Transportation, they will be labeled TR-1, TR-2, TR-3, TR-4, etc. This abbreviation is what will be listed as the call number in the library database and this same call number is what will be on the spine label. Add new categories as needed.

So, those are four options for science classifications. You can choose one, do a mash-up of all four, or come up with your own classification system that makes sense to you. After all, it’s your library. If you’re not sure what Dewey number to assign to a particular books or what category to assign that book to, just decide something that makes sense to you. Again, it’s your library. The point is to be able to find the books you are looking for when you want them and to be able to replace them in the same accessible and known location when they return to the library.

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