Photo Tour of My Home Library Project (Spring 2025)
How I reorganized my home library according to the Dewey Decimal System
What can you do with a three day weekend?
What about reorganizing your books according the Dewey Decimal System?
Since books are one of my special interests, I thought this made sense. So I ended up devoting most of last weekend to the project. Photo tour and how-to follows!
The lovely Luna appears in five pics, but you have to scroll through to see them all :)
About the System
This is a loose adaptation of Dewey’s system. There are no numbered subdivisions or stickers (unless the book is ex-library and came with one). Instead, I organized according to Dewey’s primary categories (100s to 900s) followed by subtopics—e.g. Philosophy (100s) > Consciousness, Dreams, Jung, etc. This is fine for a small home library. Alphabetized subtopics weren’t even needed in most of my sections.
Project Benefits
I packed up two boxes of books for the attic and one to donate as I reorganized. I also wiped down all the shelves and “found” a couple of books I thought I lost—including Native North American Spirituality of the Eastern Woodlands which is a wonderful book.
I now know which categories I want to grow and which are at capacity. I needed a system in order to get a handle on this. You can’t curate a collection if you don’t know what you have (or where it can be found).
Being able to find a particular book whenever I want to, is huge. I discovered a couple of duplicate books during the reorganization. I knew the originals were here somewhere but just couldn’t find them so I ordered a second copy on Amazon. They were not expensive books but still...
Things to Think About
You need to plan out this project and you can only control so much. My plan was to start with the 100s in the bookcase next to my library table (because I reference those books a lot) and work around the room clockwise to end with history in my grandfather’s old bookcase (he liked history).
Some of my prettier books didn’t end up front and center (the way they were before) but I like where most of the categories fell. (I am a function-over-form person so it worked for me.)
This can be a big project. If you’re thinking of reorganizing your books according to the Dewey Decimal System be aware that you may end up reshelving every single book you own (like I did). Reorganizing a home library of around 1000 books will take most people two or three days. There is a fair amount of weight involved, too. By the time I was done, my back was sore!
Halfway through this project, surrounded by stacks and stacks of books, I wondered if I’d made a mistake. But it came together in the end and I’m glad I took the time to do it!
Why I Like this System
The beauty (and once revolutionary nature) of the Dewey Decimal Systems is that it is dynamic. Books can be added and culled easily. This is important because space is finite (even at the Harvard research library) and it’s hard to manage books without a system.
I find systems interesting and I like working with them. Melvil Dewey was not a nice person, but I like the system he devised in 1872 when he was a student working in the library of Amherst College.
The system officially called the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) was based, in part, on Sir Francis Bacon’s classification of knowledge (associating history, poetry, and philosophy to the three fundamental faculties of memory, imagination, and reason). I like that part a lot.
The Dewey Decimal System is a flexible system. It works in large libraries holding hundreds of thousands or even millions of books and can be easily adapted for (relatively) small home libraries like mine!
For more on how I adapted the Dewey Decimal System for my home library see “About the System” above. Contrary to some blog posts on this topic, most home libraries don’t need a sticker system.
About My Space
I love books and learning but I like my little study because of its sentimental value too. In its way, it’s filled with personal symbols. My grandfather’s bookcase and reading lamp. My grandmother’s rocker and china cabinet (china cabinet not pictured). My mom’s little elephant table. Books people I care about once owned. Family pictures (not shown). Religious art and various items I have collected. Artwork and gifts from my kids. The shelves we built when we bought the house and were happy and full of hope.
Our house didn’t come with a study so I took over the living room nobody used and made it my space. It’s a nice thing to do if you’re able to.
About the Mary Statue on the Center Shelf
Loved this! I always enjoy peeking into other people's spaces. Gorgeous dog, and that elephant end table is such an eclectic touch.
I enjoyed this, Barbara. Give your lovely docent a few back rubs from me.
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