DEWEY DECIMALS IN OUTER SPACE
 ---------------------------
 John Pazmino
 NYSkies Astronomy Inc
 nyskies@ nyskies.org
 www.nyskies.org
 1979 September 1 initial
 2005 June 4 current

[This article was written a quarter century ago. Note the optimism 
about space travel in the very first sentence! I have two other far 
future statements in this article. What are they?] 

    Not too long from now, certainly by the end of this century, outer 
space and other worlds will be another territory to be inhabited by 
people from Earth. An Earth fellow, before opening, say, a factory on 
Io, will want to do a little background reading before making the 
plunge. After all, it's good to know (among other things) what the 
factory wage scale is on Io. 
    So he stops at a library here on Earth and the librarian looks up 
in the catalog. She nods and says, "Yes, we have a recent survey put 
out on that. The call number is 331.299925, over there toward the 
back." Or the businessman may be selling railroad equipment and he 
wants to know what the market may be on Mars. The library has a book 
on the rail systems of Mars, call number 385.099923. 
    To anticipate the library needs when man's endeavors extend far 
beyond planet Earth, The Dewey Decimal Classification has already a 
provision in its coding system for the Moon, the planets, the Sun, and 
outer space in general. It is an extension of the existing codes for 
geographic subdivisions. 
    A geographic subdivision is a set of digits added to the basic 
Dewey call number to indicate the geographic region the classified 
book deals with. For example, a book on the planetaria of Japan is 
given the Dewey call number 523.007652. The base number for 
"planetaria" is 523.0076 and the code for "Japan" is 52. 
    The geographic subdivision codes for other worlds are given below. 

      99 - other worlds in general   9925 - Jupiter 
     991 - the Moon                  9926 - Saturn 
     992 - solar system in general   9927 - Uranus 
    9921 - Mercury                   9928 - Neptune 
    9922 - Venus                     9929 - Pluto and beyond 
    9923 - Mars                       993 - meteors and comets  
    9924 - minor planets              994 - the Sun

The individual planets include any satellites and rings. The codes 995 
thru 999 are held in reserve for worlds outside of our solar system. 
Outer space in general is coded 19. 
    While it is a little hard to imagine a book on the Franciscan 
missionary work on Halley's Comet (271.30993), the Dewey Decimal 
Classification is ready to accommodate it.