At the New Darien Library, we’re making big progress on the second floor! The nonfiction is in and it’s arranged to make browsing the stacks easier. We’ve taken the dear old Dewey Decimal System and remixed it.

While the Dewey Decimal System is subject based, it was originally developed in 1876 and we found that many modern subject areas were split between two or more Dewey areas. This reorganization makes the books easy to browse and brings together similar subject areas. Here’s how we’ve grouped the books on the second floor:

Body & Soul is where you’ll find books on religion, philosophy, self-help and health.

Over in Nature are all the books on science, math and animals.

Home has the books on hobbies, crafts, decorating, cooking and gardening.

Places is for the globetrotters among us- travel books, phrase books and travel writing.

Work is all business. Books on finance, accounting, marketing, college admissions, test preparation and the economy are here.

Come and Play, where you’ll see books on sports, cars and recreation.

Life and Times is the largest group with history, memoir and biography.

The lovely Art and Literature has beautiful art books, literature, and writing.

We’ve had a lot of fun reorganizing the collection to make it easier for our members to find what they’re looking for. Upstairs, you can browse your favorite subject area, try out our comfy chairs and bring your research questions to our roving librarians. The second floor is also the home of the Classics room, a book-lined escape into great literature.

On January 10th, come upstairs and enjoy the beautiful, sun-filled rooms of the second floor. We can’t wait to see you!

Our reorganization cheat sheet!