Databases

Using Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database

/ lagrant / 1 Comment

By Amanda Alexander, Graduate Assistant, McLure Education Library

1

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:

2

  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.

5

 

Selected Reference Books Moved to Book Stacks

/ hvissche / 1 Comment

We are moving things around in the Education Library in order to update the study areas. The Reference Collection on the main floor will be compressed to  fit on the shelves in the north wall, behind the computer stations, and the microfiche reader printer will be on the main floor. The Reference Collection will focus on materials published after 2000.  The older Reference items will be sent to the book stacks, and anyone will be able to check them out for personal interest, or a research project.  Here are a few of the titles we have to offer:

 

Fundamentals of Educational Research, 2nd edition.  Thomas K. Crowl. McGraw Hill, 1996.  Education Library:  LB1028 .C77 1996x

According to the publisher’s review “Excellent writing and excerpts from current research articles enhance this book’s comprehensive look at the fundamental concepts of educational research and facilitate student understanding.”   Some details are out of date, such as how to do an ERIC search on CD Rom.  The basics on considerations in designing research still apply, but the chapter “The cutting edge, using technology in
educational research”  does not.

 

 

 

 

 

Handbook of Literacy and Technology:
Transformations in a Post-Typographic World.  Edited by David Reinking, et.al.  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. Education Library: LB1050.37. H36 1998.

 

The introduction states, “A printed book about electronic reading and writing is not a contradiction, but a testimony to the fact that we are in the midst of a transformation that is not yet fully consummated.” The authors in 1998 could not have known how far we have come with the World Wide Web, online articles and e-books.   It looks like they hit the mark.  The book is also available as an e-book.

 

 

 

 

Handbook of Research on School Supervision. edited by Gerald R. Firth, Edward F. Pajak. Macmillan, Library Reference, c1998.   Education Library: LB 2806.4 H 36 1998.

 

This book traces its lineage to the Handbook of Research on Teaching, edited by Nathaniel Gage in 1963. Its purpose is to assemble the major scholarship and research of the field in a single volume; identifying the boundaries, concepts, and methods of inquiry in the field of research on school supervision.  As in most research reviews, each chapter offers an historical overview.  These are still useful;  one has to keep the publication date in mind.

 

 

 

 

International Encyclopedia of Teaching and Teacher Education, 2nd edition Edited by Lorin W. Anderson, Pergamon, 1995.  Education Library:  LB 1025.3 I58 1995.

This volume is intended for those who wish to obtain an overview of a specific area of education in a relatively short period of time. Members of this audience include graduate students, university professors working outside of their area of expertise,  or elementary and secondary teachers searching for a body of knowledge to inform, guide and/or justify their teaching practices.   Computerized databases are more extensive and more readily accessed, but the encyclopedia’s
review articles are more selective, and their research summaries are set in aframework decided by distinguished contributors, all experts in their field.  This is their strength, and also the source for their potential weakness.  Examples of entries include:  Teachers as Researchers,by S. Hollingsworth  Class Size, by J.D. Finn.

Cover photo from Amazon.com Click to look inside.