Children's Literature

For more information on Children's Literature, follow this link.

Articles, Books, the Web, and More

Library databases, including Education Research Complete, Professional Development Collection, ERIC, PsycInfo, and Academic Search Complete are a major source of high quality information on education and related topics. These include descriptions of of articles published in education research journals, education magazines, and journals in related fields that provide some of the most dependable and up-to-date information available.

The library's collection of books provides longer works on established practices in the field and may be of particular use to those preparing to teach.

The library also has a Curriculum Collection and Children's Literature Collection located on the 5th Floor.

The open web can also provide useful and high quality information and lesson plans, although each new website should be examined carefully to verify the authority of the author, the point of view or bias of the sponsor, and the quality of the information.

Many of the sources linked in this guide are purchased by the library for your use. When you click on these links from a computer not connected through the campus network you will need to identify yourself by entering your campus network username and password. This is the same username and password as you use to access BlueLink.

Use the tabs above for more detailed instructions.

Questions? Ideas for Additional Resources?

Contact me:
kburkholder@okcu.edu or 405-208-5956

General Search

The most current research reports in education will be found in journal articles. EBSCOhost includes several databases useful for education research. Type a search in the box or click on the links to search them individually and control your searches more.

What is a Scholarly Source?

Most of your research will lead you to journals.

• Check out this page to remind you of the difference between Scholarly and Popular sources.

Watch Out for Plagiarism

• Complete this tutorial on plagiarism

How to search for your information in databases:

1. Type in your keywords. Click Search.
2. On the left- hand side of your screen, click Full Text and Peer Reviewed, and select a Publication Date within the last 5-10 years. Click Update.
3. Narrow your search to your subject area. Click on Subject. Check the boxes next to topics that are related to your research. Click Update.
4. If you do not have enough articles, you can Remove Full Text from your search by clicking on the orange X next to it.

What to do with your articles:

1. Click on the title of the article.
2. If it is available in Full Text, you can Read, Print, Email, and Cite it all from your computer.
3. If it is not available in Full Text, you can check to see Does the Library Own It?
4. There may be a link to another database, or a link to the University's Print Holdings.
5. Follow the Link to find out more information.
6. If there are NO LINKS, you may be able to Interlibrary Loan the article. REMEMBER: It can take 3 days to 2 weeks to get an article from another library though.

Choose a Database

For scholarly research, the following databases will be very useful:
ERIC, the Education Resources Information Clearinghouse, is the result of a government project and provides abstracts and links to journal articles and unpublished "education documents."

Education Research Complete provides abstracts and full text of journal articles, conference reports, and books on education.

Professional Development Collection specializes in articles for practicing educators and includes many full text journal articles.

PsycInfo (EBSCOhost) is the premier psychology database and indexes many articles related to educational psychology.

PsycArticles (EBSCOhost) PsycARTICLES, from the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. The database contains approximately 150,000 articles from over 70 journals published by the APA, and its imprint the Educational Publishing Foundation (EPF), and from allied organizations including the Canadian Psychology Association and Hogrefe Publishing Group.

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) is a general database that includes many articles related to education.

Oxford English Dictionary online is great resource for an online dictionary when you want to know the history of a word.

Oxford Reference Online is a useful general reference tool covering many subjects with maps, illustrations, dictionaries, encyclopedia, quotations, and timelines.

To look at resources specifically designed for school age students, try these databases:

MAS Ultra School Edition (EBSCOhost)is a database provided to every public school in Oklahoma. It provides general research to school age children.

Primary Search (EBSCOhost) Primary Search provides full text for more than 70 popular, magazines for elementary school research. All full text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles), and full text information dates as far back as 1990.

SIRS Discoverer Selected full-text database of articles of interest to primary and secondary school children.

Get Complete Articles

Most of the library's collection of education journals is online. You will be able to click on PDF (or sometimes HTML) links in the databases and read, save, email, or print complete articles.

However, a few journals that are not available online are available in the library's collection. Any time you find information about an article that doesn't include a link to the full text (even if you found the information somewhere other than a library database), you can use the library's journals list to find out if we have the journal for the date you need. You will need the title of the journal or magazine (often listed as "source" or italicized, or underlined) and the date and page numbers of the article you want.

A complete list of journals related to education can be found in the journals list.

We can request any of the articles we don't own through Interlibrary Loan. Most items arrive in 3 days to 3 weeks.

Browse Current TItles

Current issues of magazines and journals are shelved alphabetically by title on the "periodical" shelves on the first floor of the library. These titles include:
Childhood Education
Child Development (to 2010)
Classroom Notes Plus
Dimensions of Early Childhood
Education Digest (to 2010)
Education Week (to 2010)
The Gifted Child Quarterly
Instructor
Journal of Education (to 2010)
Journal of Research in Childhood Education
Mathematics Teacher
Montessori Life
Review of Educational Research
Science and Children (to 2010)
Teaching Children Mathematics
Teaching Sociology (to 2010)
Voices from the Middle

Search the Catalog

Search the library's holdings (the catalog) using the search box above. The library's holdings include about 1800 online education titles. These are included in the catalog, or you can search them directly through Ebrary.

The library also has a collection of children's literature and materials for the K-12 curriculum located on the 5th floor. They are included in the catalog, but the search boxes below allow you to search just within those collections.

SEARCH THE LIBRARY'S CURRICULUM COLLECTION
Keyword Relevance SearchTitle (skip "a","an", or "the")Title PhraseAuthor (last name first)

SEARCH THE LIBRARY'S CHILDREN'S COLLECTION
Keyword Relevance SearchTitle (skip "a","an", or "the")Title PhraseAuthor (last name first)

Use WorldCat to search the library collections of most of the world's libraries. Use the "borrow this item from another library" link to request a copy of anything you find. Most items arrive in 3 days to 3 weeks.

Download FREE ebooks in PDF format from National Academies Press on Education and Behavioral Sciences. You do have to create an account to download them, but it is free!

Browse the Shelves

Browsing the shelves is another good option. Books are arranged by Dewey Decimal numbers:

Dewey Decimal Numbers for Education
370 Education
371 Schools & their activities; Special education
372 Elementary education
373 Secondary education
374 Adult education
375 Curricula
378 Higher Education
379 Public policy issues in education

Locations for education materials
1st floor Reference
2nd floor Professional Development Collection
3rd floor Circulating Collection
5th floor Curriculum Collection
5th floor Children's Literature Collection
5th floor Oversize Collection (for items too tall for regular shelves)
basement storage Historic Circulating Materials

APA Citation Help

The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has some excellent resources for learning to write and cite in APA format.

Check out their APA Style Workshop as well as the Formatting and Style Guide which guides you on specific citation rules.

Online Search Help

The Librarian's Index to the Internet (also known as the Internet Public Library 2) is a list of websites chosen by librarians and organized by subject. If you need a guide to good internet resources, this is it!

Another list of useful education websites is at the Library of Congress website for Teachers: Lesson Plans and other Teaching Aids.

Government Statistics

National Center for Education Statistics - Has the full text of the Digest of Education Statistics and Condition of Education.

U.S. Department of Education - A good resource for anyone wanting to keep up with the world of education news.

The Office of Applied Studies is a government website that provides national data on Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

The Census Bureau also provides an amazing amount of statistics on socioeconomic status and other demographics through the American Community Survey or Quick Facts. There is also information on housing availability and affordability. Check out the American Fact Finder for similar statistics in a different format and for pre-set years.

If you are looking for information on services for the elderly, check out Medicare.gov and its Nursing Home Comparison tool.

Advanced Searching Techniques

Once you have found an article that is relevant to your research, you will want to find more like it.

These are some techniques to find additional articles.

Subject Searches
When you are looking at the Detailed Record of your article, you will see several subjects listed that relate to this article. You can do a couple of things with this information.

1. Basic Subject Search. Try clicking on the Subject hyperlinks. This will take you to a new search based on that Subject. This tends to produce more results than you are looking for and you will need to narrow your search again.
2. Add a Subject term to your Advanced Search. In the Advanced Search boxes at the top of the screen type one of the Subject terms in a blank search field. Make sure you choose SU Subject from the drop down box. You could do a new search with multiple Subjects, or just add a Subject to your current search.

Use the Journal's Table of Contents
When you are in the PDF of your article, you will see on the left hand side the entire Table of Contents for that journal issue. Look through it to see if there are additional articles in the same issue that would be useful.

Citation Chaining
Use the citations at the end of your article to find what the author used to develop his or her research. You will probably want to read some of the same articles for yourself. By using one citation to find another article, you create a citation chain that can lead you to very interesting material.

Finding Articles from a Reference List
Use the Journals List to see if we have access to the Journal title listed in the Reference List. Copy the journal title into the search box on the Journals List page. If we have access to it, there will be links provided for where you can go to get it. If we do not have access to it, use the Interlibrary Loan Article Request Form to request it.

Finding Books from a Reference List
Use WorldCat to see where you can obtain the book. Copy the book title and paste it into the first search box. If we own it, you will see Oklahoma City University Dulaney Browne Library highlighted in green. Click Libraries Worldwide, then click OCU Dulaney Browne Library. It will take you to the record in our catalog where you can find it in our collection. If we do not have it in our collection, click Libraries Worldwide. The top libraries are those nearest to us. If it is close by and available, you would get it fastest by using your OK Share Card. You may also request it by Interlibrary Loan by clicking the ILL button at the top of the record.

Reference Books

R370.3 G646d3
Dictionary of Education.

R 370.3 En554en2
Encyclopedia of Education.

R 370.11703 d561
Dictionary of Multicultural Education.

R 370.196 H191b2
Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education.

R 370.973 Un3e3 2007
Encyclopedia of American Education.

R 372.2103 Ea76n 2007
Early Childhood Education: an International Encyclopedia.

R 370.3 En 19a6
Encyclopedia of Educational Research