The following is a support file related to a library
instruction session conducted by a library instructor and a BHCC Early Childhood
Education course instructor
Today's discussion ...
What are the available sources available to complete your assignment?
What are the differences between them?
How many sources do you need to identify?
How do you plan to conduct your research, sort through the information you find, select the most appropriate items, and evaluate the credibility of the materials you plan to us in your works cited sheet?
What keywords will you use to locate the information you need?
Today’s Research Goal
Professor Lindamood has given you an assignment to write a briefing paper about Early Childhood Education in a country assigned to you. This requires research into both basic facts about the country, and facts that apply to Early Childhood Education alone.
You are encouraged to use both print and electronic resources for the assignment related to today's session. Plan to visit the library often with time enough to familiarize yourself with a range of sources and the tools designed to help you help yourself throughout the research process.
Pinted Sources
Encyclopedias -
An encyclopedia is a reference work that is made up articles covering basic knowledge and information.
A good general encyclopedia is the Encyclopedia Americana (call number REF AE5 .E333 2001) . This encyclopedia will have information on any of the countries assigned to you, including history, demographics, and regional culture.
An encyclopedia that just covers topics on education is the Encyclopedia of Education (call number REF LB15 .E47 2003).Be sure you are using the 2003 edition. The 1971 edition will have a lot of information that is out of date.
Almanacs - An almanac is a reference source that covers a broad range of information, just like an encyclopedia. An almanac, however, is updated every year, so it is more current. It does not go into as much depth as an encyclopedia, however, and focuses more on brief facts.
A good general almanac is the World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2006 (Call number REF AY67 .N5 W7 2006
Other books
The library has two other books on reserve that may be of help.
One is Starting Strong: Early Childhood Education and Care (Call Number REF LB1140.2 .S768 2001. This is a report of the OECD, about Early Childhood Education and Care in OECD countrites.
Another is The International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. (Call Number REF LB 1139.23 .I68 1992) This book has information specific to individual countries.
Always remember, you can use the catalog to find other books in our circulating collection in the subject. You may even be able to find an ENTIRE book on an ASPECT of how children are treated in the nation you’ve chosen, or a CHAPTER on how children are treated within a larger book that covers many aspects of life in the nation. To find a book use the BHCC Online Catalog. You may search the catalog by SUBJECT or KEYWORD, as well as by author or title. The
Keyword option allows you to combine your search terms. "View Entire Collection" allows finding books and other materials available from other NOBLE libraries
using Interlibrary Loan Service.
Finding Information: Looking for Articles in Information Databases
Information Databases contain high-quality information - stuff not found on the web - such as full-text articles from the Boston Globe, and from magazines and journals like Time, Psychology Today, and many others, including peer-reviewed journals containing research articles on child development. Yet, databases can be confusing, because libraries usually have a lot of databases, and you need to know a bit about how to search the databases to find what you need.
IMPORTANT NOTE: With a BHCC ID that has been activated at the Lending Services Desk, you can access all our databases from off-campus. To use the databases from off campus, you’ll be asked to enter your last name and the 14 digit barcode# on the back of your BHCC ID.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Boston Public Library at www.bpl.org gives access to PSYCInfo, a psychology database covering more than 1,300 journals in psychology, including child education and services. Some full-text articles are provided. Any resident of Massachusetts can get a library card at the Boston Public Library. Visit http://www.bpl.org/general/circulation/wherecard.htm for more information.
Here’s the web address for the BHCC Library Databases Web Page: http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm
Here are some suggested databases to try on this web page. This is not an exhaustive list.
Databases to find background information about your assigned country
- Facts.com is primarily a news database. It does have a searchable almanac, however, just like the one in print mentioned above.
How to get to it: Click Facts.com from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page.
- eLibrary is a database with a combination of resources, including dictionaries, maps, almanacs, and encyclopedia. You can choose to search these one at a time, or all at once.
How to get to it: Click eLibrary from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page.
Databases that may contain articles about child education and services in other countries
- EBSCO’s Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection. – Covers topics in psychology, including child child education and services, with the full-text of articles from many peer-reviewed journals.
How to get to it: Click EBSCO from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page and then click Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection from database menu.
- Infotrac Web’s Expanded Academic ASAP – Covers a broad range of subjects, including child child education and services. Has full-text of articles from peer-reviewed journals.
How to get to it: Click Infotrac Web from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page and then click Expanded Academic ASAP from database menu.
- Infotrac Web’s Professional Collection – Intended for teachers and school administrators, this database has peer-reviewed full-text articles on aspects of childhood education.
How to get to it: Click Infotrac Web from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page and then click Professional Collection from the database menu.
- Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – Covers all aspects of educational research and practice, including child education and services. Full-text of some peer-reviewed articles are provided.
How to get to it: Click Educational Resources Information Center from the http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm web page.
Important tips when using databases:
- Some databases assign subjects to their articles. This means if you find one article on a subject, you can then click on the article’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all articles assigned the same subject. It is also possible to browse subject lists in these databases.
- As with book catalogs, you also can try a text or keyword search using one or more words that describe your topic. This search looks for every appearance of the word(s) in
the record, and “pulls up” all the records that contain the words. You may get a lot of
articles, so we recommend using more words. Typically, you can use this method with
every database.
- Databases do NOT contain every article that has been written about smoking. Typically, only recent articles are in databases - articles published after 1980, or even later.
- Many databases allow you to save an article to disk, or email the article to yourself. This is particularly important when you don’t have a printer available.
- If you are interested in searching for articles that appeared in the Boston Globe or the New York Times, or a favorite magazine or journal, then search our alphabetical list of
all magazines, journals, and newspapers we get – either in print or in a database - at
http://ph8vq3lq6p.search.serialssolutions.com/
- Remember: Databases can be frustrating! There are many different ways to search them. If you have any questions, ask, don't give up.
Finding Information: Prowling the Web
A lot of information is on the web, which makes it very confusing very fast! Also, no one monitors the quality of the information on the web – some web pages are accurate, while others are not. The key question to consider is…How do we know a website is trustworthy? For every webpage you visit, consider the following questions:
- How accurate is the information? Look for spelling errors and typos, a current creation date, well-supported arguments, and even peer review.
- How credible is the information? Look for information on the author – name, job and job title, organization, affiliation, contact information, relevant credentials.
- What kind of documentation does the information have? All facts – especially numbers – should have sources. Look for a list of works cited or bibliography.
- How appropriate is the information? Look for balance – more than one view is acknowledged – and an objective rather than emotional writing style. The author should also take care to distinguish between their opinion and fact.
Here’s a helpful webpage posted by Sonoma State University Library that talks more about evaluating information: http://library.sonoma.edu/research/subject/evaluate.html
In general, web pages posted by the government, or by educational institutions are trustworthy. Their web pages have a .gov or .edu in the web address. When no printer is available, try saving the web page to a disk. Also be sure to write down the web page’s complete web address, because a saved web page may not give you the complete address.
Good general search engine: (REMEMBER: YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN ABOUT EVALUATING THE WEB PAGES YOU FIND USING GOOGLE! )
http://www.google.com (Google has advanced search techniques – if you’re interested)
Where librarians start Web research:
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SOME HELPFUL WEBSITES WE SUGGEST TRYING AS YOU EXPLORE RESEARCH IN child education and services: (These websites also focus on child development, but child education and services are important aspects to ensure healthy development. These websites can be searched, or will lead you to other helpful websites.)
COUNTRY PROFILE WEB SOURCE: hhttps://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html -The CIA World Factbook is an excellent source of statistics and information on specific countries and regions – providing an overview of a country’s history, government, education and population characteristics.
EXCELLENT LIBRARY WEB PAGES:
http://library.humboldt.edu/~ccm/cochders.htm - This is an excellent listing of both print and electronic resources in child development posted by Humboldt State University Library. (NOTE: BHCC Library may not subscribe to the databases listed on this web page)
http://library.humboldt.edu/~ccm/childdev.html - This is a comprehensive listing of websites on child development, also posted by Humboldt State University Library.
http://library.csus.edu/guides/rogenmoserd/childdev2.htm - This web page posted by California State University Library in Sacremento, provides a shorter listing of print and electronic resources on child development, and also gives a listing of major journals in the field. (NOTE: BHCC Library may not subscribe to the journals or databases listed on this web page. To see if we have one of the journals listed on this page, search http://ph8vq3lq6p.search.serialssolutions.com/ )
EXCELLENT PAGES POSTED BY UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS:
http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/ - This website, posted by Tufts University and called the “Child & Family Web Guide,” is an excellent gateway website to other websites on child development
http://www.childcareresearch.org/discover/index.jsp - This website, posted by the Child Care and Early Education Research Connections, focus on research on many aspects related to child care and early education. Helpful, but intimidating.