How to Study

2. Book catalogs. The best-known are Books in Print,
Forthcoming Books, and the Cumulative Book Index.
3. Newspaper indexes. Several large-city newspapers provide
an indexed list of all articles they have published. Your library
may even have past issues of one or more available on 
microfiche.
4. Periodical indexes. To find out if any magazine articles 
have been published on your subject, go to a periodical index.
The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, which indexes 
articles published in the most popular American magazines,
may be one with which you’re already familiar. 
5. Vertical file. Here’s where you’ll find pamphlets and
brochures. 
6. Guide to U.S. Government Publications, American 
Statistical Index, and Congressional Information 
Service Index. These are all useful for locating government
publications. 
7. Computer databases. Widely used indexes are available,
covering American and world history, art, biology, philosophy,
religion, psychology, engineering, and much more. 
8. The Internet. Most magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias,
government organizations, and so forth have websites that
can be a starting point for your search. They often have links
to other sites where you can find full-length articles and 
stories, biographic information, and the like. 
Set aside solid blocks of time for your research. And remember: 
It’s better to schedule a handful of extended trips to the library than
15 or 20 brief visits, better to do a solid few hours online than 10 
minutes here and 15 minutes there.
How to Study
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How Libraries Are Organized
To provide organization and facilitate access, most small and academic
libraries utilize the Dewey decimal classification system, which uses
numbers from 000 through 999 to classify all material by subject
matter. It begins by organizing all books into 10 major groupings.
Given the millions of books available in major libraries, just dividing
them into these 10 groups would still make it quite difficult to find 
a specific title. So each of the 10 major groupings is further divided
into 10, and each of these now 100 groups is assigned to more
specific subjects within each large group. For example, within the 
philosophy classification (100), 150 is psychology and 170 is ethics.
Within the history classification (900), 910 is travel and 930 is ancient
history.
000–099
General
100–199
Philosophy
200–299
Religion
300–399
Social Sciences
400–499
Language
500–599
Natural Science and Mathematics
600–699
Technology
700–799
Fine Arts
800–899
Literature
900–999
General Geography and History
Chapter 6 
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How to Conduct Your Research
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There is even further subdivision. Mathematics is given its own 
number in the 500 series—510. But specific subjects within mathe-
matics are further classified: 511 is arithmetic, 512 is algebra, and 
so on.
Finally, to simplify your task even more, the last two digits in the
Dewey code signify the type of book:
01 Philosophy 
of
02 Outlines 
of
03 Dictionary 
of
04 Essays 
about 
05 Periodicals 
on 
06 
Society transactions and proceedings 
07 
Study or teaching of 
08 Collections 
09 History 
of 
If your library doesn’t use the Dewey system, it probably is organized
according to the Library of Congress system, which uses letters
instead of numbers to denote major categories:
A
General works (encyclopedias and other reference) 
B
Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion 
C
History: Auxiliary sciences (archeology, genealogy, etc.) 
D
History General, non-American 
E
American history (general) 
F
American history (local) 
G
Geography/Anthropology 
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H
Social sciences (sociology, business, economics) 
J
Political sciences 
K
Law 
L
Education 
M
Music 
N
Fine arts (art and architecture) 
P
Language/Literature 
Q
Sciences 
R
Medicine 
S
Agriculture 
T
Technology 
U
Military science 
V
Naval science 
Z
Bibliography/Library science