Month: October 2014

Using Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database

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By Amanda Alexander, Graduate Assistant, McLure Education Library

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What it is:

  • Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database is an online database with an extensive array of information about children’s books, video and audio recordings, film strips, and other children-focused media. The database contains more than 400,000 critical reviews of children’s books, ranging from baby board books to novels and nonfiction for young adults. These reviews are supplied by quality media sources such as VOYA, The ALAN Review, Booklist, Kirkus, etc. CLCD’s search function allows users to find books by subject, age level, grade level, genre, and more. Information about awards, honors, and prizes given to specific books is also provided along with information about reading measurement program information as well as curriculum tools and links to over 240,000 web pages featuring children’s authors and illustrators.

Logging in:

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  1. Go to the University of Alabama’s Libraries
  2. On the left side of the screen, there is a list. Click on Databases.
  3. There are different ways to find a specific database. The easiest method would be to BROWSE ALPHABETICAL LIST, which is on the right side of the screen. Click on the letter “C.”
  4. Scroll down until you find “Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database,” and click on it. This will take you to the CLCD homepage.

Conducting a Search:

Let’s say you want to search for reviews on books about dogs for preschoolers.

  1. In the search box at the top of the type in DOGS.
  2. If conducting a search on keyword, leave the selection “Singular and Plural forms” checked in the Word Search Criteria box.
  3. If conducting a search on a keyword, the selection “All fields” should be checked in the Search Specific Fields box.
  4. Special Search Qualifiers. If you are looking for children’s books on a certain topic, select “Children and YA only.”
  5. If you want to make your search more specific, there are many additional search qualifiers. You can modify a search by reader’s Age, Grade, Category, Publication Date, Genre, Language, Reading Metrics etc. It is advised that you chose to use only one of either the Age or Grade features, either Age (3 to 4) or Grade (Preschool Age 3).
  6. Click on one of the titles that search results turn up.
  7. You will be given information on the book’s honors and awards, reading lists that feature the book, information about Reading Measurement Programs and Reviews.
  8. Also right under the book title, CLCD will show you if the UA library has that title in its catalog. If so, there will be a green check mark next to “your library holds this title”.3
  9. If you click the link it opens a new tab that will take you directly to the UA library catalog where you can see the book’s call number and location.

Creating a CLCD account:

  • Users can create a personal MyCLCD account that gives you the ability to save titles to readings lists, share and modify items such as custom thematic lists and bibliographies, and save and view your search history. As a Student – you can save your work for future review and modification as CLCD allows you to keep your membership for up to one year after you graduate.
  1. Go to the CLCD homepage and click on “My CLCD Account Login” at the top right hand side of the screen.
  2. Next, Click on either “Request Access” or “Click here to create your account”4
  3. Lastly, A box will appear for you to fill in your personal information and complete the creation of your account.

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McLure Presentation Practice Rooms

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By Leslie Grant, Graduate Assistant, McLure Education Library

One new addition to the library this semester is the presentation practice rooms. On the second floor of McLure, two rooms are available where students can use library equipment (either PC or Mac) to practice giving presentations. Rooms can be booked in advance by placing a reservation or by making a walk in appointment as long as the room is not currently being used. Students can use a room for up to 2 hours, and as many as four people can use the room at a time. In order to use a practice room, students will need a valid action card and will be required to provide contact information. Students will receive a key to the room at the front desk in exchange for their action card, which will be returned upon departure. Further information can be found on the library’s website under the Presentation Practice Rooms link. Please feel free to contact us if you have any other questions!

Requesting Material Through Interlibrary Loan

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By Leslie Grant, Graduate Assistant, McLure Education Library

Sometimes you may want to use a book, journal, or other material that is unavailable at the library. If this is the case, you’re not out of luck. You may be able to request it through Interlibrary Loans (ILL). For materials UA does not own, you will need to fill out an ILL form, which can be found on the Interlibrary Loan page of the library’s website. However, if the material you want can be found in the library catalog, then you can use it to fill out the form for you. Here are directions using the journal Quest as an example:

1. From the library’s homepage, go to the catalog by selecting “Libraries’ Catalog” under “Resources” in the middle of the page.

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2. Locate the journal by conducting a search in the catalog.

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3. Once you have found the correct material, follow the link at the bottom of the page for access to the electronic resource.

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4. Select the issue and article you need, and then click “Check for Full Text.”

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5. This should take you back to the library’s website. Follow the link “ILLiad” under “Step 3” to submit an ILL request.

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6. Once you log on, it will take you a completed request form with the article’s information.

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7. Scroll down and select “Submit Request” to finish your request.

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Now your ILL request has been completed. It’s that easy! Let us know if this helped.