LIBRARY RESEARCH GUIDE FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Information Literacy & Elementary Education
If you are completely new to the library and research, we strongly recommend that you complete WCSU Libraries' TIP Tutorial, an online tutorial for information literacy and library-related skills.
Database Resources for Coursework in Elementary Education
The following databases are useful for gathering information for creating lesson plans, exploring tools for instruction, tracking education news or for conducting library research. Use your Windows login to access articles from anywhere on campus. If you are working at another location, make sure to get a library pin code. You will be required to submit it before accessing articles from our databases remotely. Note that print periodicals and newspapers can be browsed on the 3rd floor of Haas Library.
iCONN: Connecticut Digital Library
- A collection of databases, accessible by all citizens of Connecticut, offers a rich array of K-12 curriculum resources.
- Targeted database resources are available to those logging on from schools, public libraries and universities/colleges.
- Resources support K-12 teaching AND student research.
- Explore such collections as "Resources for K-12 Students" (explore especially "Kids Info Bits" and "Infotrac Junior/Student Editions).
- Search one collection or all of them at once.
- Check out the Learning Activities section; you can contribute your own activity once you start teaching!
ERIC (through EBSCOhost system)
- user friendly basic search and advanced search options; help is only a mouse click away.
- utilizes ERIC subject headings (called "descriptors" and "identifiers") for targeted, efficient searching (follow the "thesaurus" button to identify descriptors and identifiers for your search, or follow term links to search related articles directly.)
- automatically links to full text of articles (EJs) and documents (EDs) whenever available, even searching other library databases.
- Note: ED's are a rich source of lesson plan ideas.
- use Ebsco Combined Databases feature, to search ERIC and Academic Search Premier (described below) simultaneously to retrieve more fulltext articles.
Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost)
- contains full text
- includes many education publications
Educator's Reference Complete (Gale through iCONN)
- access to over 300 full text magazines and journals for educators
Locating Books
CONSULS (CSU Online Catalog)
- Use CONSULS, the WCSU Libraries online catalog, to locate a rich collection of books and other materials related to elementary education. Limit location to "WCSU" to retrieve our campus holdings. Be sure to use the date limiter to access current materials.
- You may search CONSULS by author, title, subject, or keyword. Run keyword searches using AND, OR, NOT to combine more than one concept, for example: teaching AND history.
- If you do not retrieve enough items using subject search, be sure to run a keyword search as well. Books at CCSU, ECSU, SCSU can be delivered to WCSU using the CONSULS "Request Book" feature (accessible from book record display screen, using your library PIN code).
BROWSING (Haas Library Print Collection)
-
The Curriculum Room on the 4th floor of Haas Library houses a strong collection of instructional guides, handbooks and teaching kits.
- The education circulating book collection is housed on the 4th floor of Haas Library in the Library of Congress "L" Class.
- The education reference book collection is housed on the 1st floor of Haas Library in the same class.
Other Library Catalogs
LOCATING INTERNET RESOURCES
Start with authoritative subject guides and directories. Then try searching general collections of scholarly and other high quality web resources. For a particularly hard-to-find topic, use a larger general search engine, such as Google or Yahoo.
REMOTE ACCESS
You can access any of the above resources from home, by pointing your browser to http://library.wcsu.edu/.
However, to access the journal databases, you will need to be an authenticated WCSU user with:
- Internet Access (AOL, SNET; DSL, Cable modem, etc.)
- Browser (MS Internet Explorer, Netscape or other)
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Library PIN
Jenny Innes
Public Services Librarian
innesg@wcsu.edu
203-837-9141
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