Q. How are nonfiction books organized on the shelves?

Non-fiction books at Sinclair are arranged by the Dewey Decimal System (DDC), with the exception of a few small areas. This means they are arranged by topic or discipline or field of study. Each numerical section starts out with broad or general subjects, and gets more narrow as you move through the numbers. The longer the number, typically the more specific the topic is. For example:

• Class 600 – Technology (Applied Sciences)
  • 610 Medicine and health (General)
    • 612 Human physiology
      • 612.2 Respiratory system
        • 616.24 COPD

Author names are part of the extended "cutter" number that follows the main topical number. The L in 616.2 L486r, stands for Leen, Harry, who is the author of the book "The respiratory therapist as disease manager".

Follow this link for a quick list of DDC call numbers.