The DDC thousand Sections are on their own page (see the tabs on the top of the screen).
The summaries are also available on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dewey_Decimal_classes
Life can never be as simple as it looks, and as far as the DDC is concerned, there are revisions every couple of years which needs a fresh ‘release’ or version. I myself still use the DDC 20 version, which mainly had a major revision of the Music sections. There have been quite a few major changes since then, especially in Computer subjects (000s) and in the Natural Sciences (500s). The latest is the 23rd print version, DDC23 released in 2011; the following list (taken from the DDC website) refers to the DDC 22 version released in mid-2003; DDC 21 was released in 1996 (more of versions in a later post). All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC. Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, oclc@oclc.org.
In my experience, classification can become a puzzling affair if taken to the extreme; one has to draw the line somewhere comfortable, and choose whatever number gives a close enough fit until further research is feasible (or look it up in their blog!). There are ways to cheat a little, like looking up your book (if it’s a published one, or else a close alternative with a similar title) on any of the public library websites; my favourite is the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/)!
The following links give the Dewey summaries:
The summaries are also available on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dewey_Decimal_classes
Life can never be as simple as it looks, and as far as the DDC is concerned, there are revisions every couple of years which needs a fresh ‘release’ or version. I myself still use the DDC 20 version, which mainly had a major revision of the Music sections. There have been quite a few major changes since then, especially in Computer subjects (000s) and in the Natural Sciences (500s). The latest is the 23rd print version, DDC23 released in 2011; the following list (taken from the DDC website) refers to the DDC 22 version released in mid-2003; DDC 21 was released in 1996 (more of versions in a later post). All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC. Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, DDC, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, oclc@oclc.org.
The following links will take you to downloadable pdf documents from the OCLC site, providing an introduction to the DDC 22, a glossary, and a guide to the major changes from DDC 21:
The following links will take you to similar pdf’s for DDC 23:
Here’s a link to the OCLC blog: http://ddc.typepad.com/025431/
In my experience, classification can become a puzzling affair if taken to the extreme; one has to draw the line somewhere comfortable, and choose whatever number gives a close enough fit until further research is feasible (or look it up in their blog!). There are ways to cheat a little, like looking up your book (if it’s a published one, or else a close alternative with a similar title) on any of the public library websites; my favourite is the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/)!
Apparently, the numbers up to the Sections (3 digits, before the decimal point) are freely available on public media, but the detailed classification scheme to the right of the decimal point, would require you to purchase a copy of the manual (or its web version, of course).
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