Who loves miscellaneous information?

Brad loves miscellaneous information.

Is it true?

Mm-hmm! I do, I do, I do, I do-oooh!

And what better place to find such miscellaneous information than in the library’s 000s section of non-fiction? The 000s are arguably the oddest and most diverse collection of materials throughout all of the non-fiction collection. Some credit must be given to the 700s which contend for quite a variety as well with “Arts and Recreation” (Pst, it might be my other favorite section). The 000s originally held the classification as simply “General Works,” but have since been extended to “Computer Science, Information & General Works.” Now, the 000s have potentially thousands of subcategories as Dewey intended, so I will refrain from spending a novel’s worth of explanation and will focus on the beefiest areas we have available in our collection.

001.9:
Ah, yes. Quite a specific number after declaring my intent to be broad, and it even has a decimal point! I promise this will be the only one. 001.9 could be considered fascinating be you believer or skeptic. No, not a religious believer. That’s mostly reserved for the 200s. 001.9 focuses on a variety of material including UFOs, conspiracies, cryptids (Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, etc.), and anything similar that isn’t classified as “Paranormal,” which is located a skip or two down the aisle in the 130s. 

002-006:
Now here’s a nice clump of numbers. 002 through 006 blankets the tech stuff. If you just bought your first smartphone, are trying your hand at photo editing, need to brush up on entering data into spreadsheets, or anything between, then this area contains the information you might be seeking. If it’s tech, it’s probably here. Conspiracy theories and technology located so near each other. Hmmm.

020s:
Okay, this isn’t the section for the average browser. But it’s important nonetheless. This is where we keep the actual library topic material. We library staff need a place for our information as well! This is it. If you’re ever curious why a library does something a certain way or is changing to some new norm, you might find the answer here.

030s:
We honestly do not have much material in this category, but the material that is there is quite popular. This is where the random facts are located like Guinness World Records or Ripley’s Believe It or Not. This is considered the area for “Encyclopedias & Books of Facts.”

070s:
This is another diverse area that includes content for “News Media, Journalism, and Publishing.” Journalism covers work, theory, ethics, etc. You can also find materials for the field of publishing. If you work in the field or you are a writer looking to get published, there are some essential materials like Writer’s Market as well as various Dummies guides on the industry. Writer’s Market, in particular, is quite useful for finding contact information for agents, publishers, and magazines, in addition to workshops and contests.