Map of the Biography Islands

To help readers locate books easily, libraries shelve them using classification systems. Each book is assigned a call number which gives it a specific position on the shelves, so that similar topics are usually shelved together.

This "map" is designed to illustrate the similarities and difference between two prevalent library sorting systems — Dewey Decimal (DDC) and Library of Congress (LCC). Each of the 1,000 labeled points on the map represents a notable person from the past who has had multiple biographies written about them. The horizontal axis represents these books' usual Dewey number, while the vertical axis represents the LCC number.

Who's included?

The 1,000 points on this map represent 1,007 notable people from the past (some points are duos, like the Wright Brothers and Bonnie & Clyde). A great effort was made to include well-known and interesting figures from a wide range of occupations and nationalities. While compiling this list of notable people, the following guidelines were used:

• An effort must be made to include multiple people from each major DDC class (000, 100, 200, etc.) and LCC class (A, B, C, etc.)
• No major DDC or LCC class may take up more than one-third of the list.
• For both DDC and LLC, the most populated major class cannot exceed 150% of the second-most populated class.
• Each person included on the list must have already died.
• No more than two-thirds of the list may be of one gender.
• Each person must have had at least 3 biographies about them published in English in the past 20 years.

The Library of Congress catalog was the primary resource for finding biographies, publication dates and call numbers. When a person had varying call numbers, sometimes other library catalogs were consulted or the more recently assigned call numbers were favored.

Full list