Library guide to finding information in: Early Childhood Education & Care
Introduction
Journals
Library catalogue
Journals - on the library shelves
Quick reference sources
E-journals
Quick reference - online
Journals not available at Newman
Quick reference - on the library shelves
Statistics
Books
Statistics - on the library shelves
Books - on the library shelves
E-statistics
E-books
Searching the web
Purchasing books
Useful websites
Information gateways
Introduction
This subject guide is intended to help you research the information that you will be required to find
for the Early Childhood Education & Care subject area. It provides a comprehensive overview of
the best resources for your subject area.
Remember, a comprehensive literature search of the available resources will allow you to read
widely around a subject, absorb a range of viewpoints and reach your own conclusions on a topic
based on what you've read. Exactly the kind of behaviour your lecturers are looking for!
Library catalogue
The library catalogue is accessible at designated terminals in the library or online via the library
homepage.
You can search the catalogue by keyword, title, author or year. The keyword option is especially
useful for searching a particular subject as it performs a flexible search.
From the drop-down box on the opening screen of the catalogue, you can also opt to search a
particular collection of resources. For example:
• Journals – searches the journal titles available in the library. For references to specific articles
you should use the electronic bibliographic databases and online journals.
• School Experience – searches for teaching materials such as lesson plans, topic books, kits and
artefacts.
An online help guide to using the catalogue is available (click on the Help tab in the library
catalogue). There is also a tutorial on the Library Zone page of Moodle How to find items in the
library but if you need any further help please ask a member of library staff.
Quick reference sources
Quick reference sources, which are available in the General Reference Collection in the library and
online, provide a useful starting point for your research. Sources include encyclopedias,
dictionaries, handbooks, directories and yearbooks and you can use them to find:
• Explanations and definitions of particular terms or topics.
• Contact addresses or information on people or organisations.
• Factual and statistical information.
The examples selected for this guide will help you get to grips with some of the terminology you
will encounter while studying Working with Children, Young People and Families:
Online
The library subscribes to the following services which can be accessed from the E-Reference
section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website:
• Britannica Online – Academic Electronic version of this authoritative encyclopedia. Also links
through to full-text journal articles on topics covered in the encyclopedia.
• Oxford Reference Online - Quick reference information together with authoritative, in-depth
articles. Contains the full text of over 130 dictionaries, plus an encyclopaedia, thesauri, and guides
to English grammar and usage. Includes a wide range of additional material such as maps,
illustrations and timelines.
On the library shelves
You will find the following and many others in the General Reference Collection:
• Education Yearbook 2008/2009 - The UK’s most comprehensive source of information on
professionals in the education arena. Areas covered include: Voluntary Service and Groups for
Children and Young People, Educational Visits and Special Needs Organisations.
• The New Walford Guide to Reference Resources: Volume 2 the Social Sciences - Points
you to an expertly chosen selection of key, quality resources – accessible electronically and in
print. Sections include: Social Work and Social Welfare, Sociology, Education and Learning and
Government.
Books
On the library shelves
The Library uses the Dewey decimal system to classify and arrange its books by subject. The
catalogue will give you the shelf number of the book you need, and tell you if it is in the library or
out on loan. The following are some examples of shelf numbers relevant to Working with Children
Young People and Families:
Abused and neglected children
362.76
Bullying
371.58
Child development - general
305.231
Child development - psychological, cognitive, social
155.4
Child development - physical
612.65
Children and society
362.7
Citizenship
370.115
Creativity in the Early Years
370.157
Early years education and care
372.21
Educational research
370.78
Emotional difficulties - pupils
371.94
Government control in education
379.15
Health promotion
362.1
Health - children
362.19892
Inclusion
371.9046
Multicultural and bilingual
371.97
Primary education
372
Psychology
150
Psychology - education
370.15
Pupil guidance and counselling
371.4
Secondary education
373
Social policy
361.61
Sociology
301
Sociology - education
370.19
Special needs and advocacy
371.9
Study skills
378.17
Teacher/parent relations
371.103
E-books
Some of the library’s most popular texts are now available to you electronically through our e-book
service provided by Dawsonera.
Dawsonera can be accessed from the E-books section of the Electronic Resources page on the
library website . You will need to be logged into Athens to access the full-text books which the
library has purchased (details can be found in the Athens information section of the Electronic
Resources page on the library website). Individual titles can also be accessed via the library
catalogue.
Purchasing books
For some modules you may be required to purchase some or all of the texts from the ‘essential
reading’ on your reading lists. You may find the following retailers useful:
Abebooks - Online bookshop especially useful for second hand and out of print books.
Amazon - Online books, often much cheaper than RRP!
Waterstones - Search and buy online or try their branch located on the University of Birmingham
Edgbaston campus – they often have textbooks in stock that are difficult to obtain from elsewhere.
Telephone them on 0121 472 3034.
Journals
Journals are an excellent source of information. They show evidence of wider reading, are
important for research and help you to keep informed of any changes and developments in the
study of your subject area. They are published more frequently than textbooks, so the information
they hold is often more up-to-date. Tutorials and guides to finding Journal articles are available on
the Library Zone page of Moodle.
On the library shelves
You can search for journal titles on the library catalogue by selecting ‘journals’ from the drop-down
collections box on the search screen. The journal collection is for reference only, so titles should
always be accessible. They are shelved alphabetically by title in the Journal room.
Examples of titles that you may find useful for the Early Childhood Education & Care subject area
are:
British Educational Research Journal
Children and Society
Children and Young People Now
Childhood
Child and Family Social Work
Community Care
Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development
International Journal of Early Years Education
E-journals
The library subscribes to many different online journal services, all of which are accessible from
the Databases and e-journals section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website.
There is a useful tutorial Finding e-journals on the Library Zone page of Moodle. For Early
Childhood Education & Care, you will find the following services particulary useful:
Education Research Complete The definitive online resource for education research. Topics covered
include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational
specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research
Complete provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals, as well as full text for
more than 1,200 journals, and includes full text for nearly 500 books and monographs.
Childlink Database focusing on Legislation, Policies and Practices regarding children, young people
and families with information on Education, Welfare, Lifestyle, Justice, Benefit Issues, Youth
Affairs, Health and Employment.
Swetswise Full-text articles from a range of journals, including titles currently held in hard copy in
the library.
Journals A-Z List This is a complete listing of every journal that the library subscribes to both in
print and electronic formats. You can search this database by journal title only; article level
searching is not possible here. If we have access to the journal in print you will be linked through
to the library catalogue and if we have electronic access to the journal, it will link you through to
the relevant database or online journal service.This list is particularly useful if you have been given
a reference to a journal article that you would like to use in your research and you need to know if
the library subscribes to it.
You will need to be logged into Athens in order to be able to access most of these resources,
details can be found in the Athens information section of the Electronic Resources page on the
library website.
Journals not available at Newman
We may be able to provide an article from a journal that we don’t have in the library via our interlibrary loans service. Please ask at the Enquiry desk or email: library-enquiries@newman.ac.uk for
details. This service incurs a small charge and is also available for books.
If the journal articles you require are held in a university library near to you, you can visit that
library to access their journals through the SCONUL Access scheme. You can find out which
universities have the journals you need by checking the library catalogue of individual institutions
or by checking Zetoc the British Library's table of contents. A list of other univeristy catalogues is
available on the Electronic resources page of the Newman library website.
Statistics
Statistics underpin many academic debates about quality, standards, equal opportunities and the
overall effectiveness of Government policy. You can use them in assignments or research to add
weight to your arguments.
On the library shelves
• Social Trends - Produced by the Office for National Statistics, annually. Provides a
comprehensive guide to UK society, illustrating how our lives have changed over the years and
also reflecting the realities of contemporary lifestyles.
• Annual Abstract of Statistics - Produced by the Office for National Statistics. An annual
publication containing a comprehensive collection of statistics about the UK’s economy and society
including population, national accounts and government finance, the labour market, health and
social protection, education, crime, environment, transport and many other subjects.
E-statistics
UK Statistics Authority Oversees the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Provides links to
government sites to find the statistics of your choice. Sections include Neighbourhood, Economy,
Census and Population.
DCSF National Statistics Department for Children, Schools and Families Analytical Services produce
a wide range of statistics covering education, training and life-long learning.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics Global and internationally comparable statistics on education,
science, technology, culture and communication.
The Guardian Datastore Governments around the globe are opening up their data vaults – allowing
you to check out the numbers for yourself. This is the Guardian’s gateway to that information.
Search for government data here from countries, cities and states around the world.
Searching the web
Useful Websites- There are a number of carefully selected websites relevent to Early Childhood
Education & Care in the General Education section of Intute.
Information gateways
Information gateways gather internet resources which are carefully selected, indexed and
described by subject specialists. You may find the following gateway useful for the Early Childhood
Education & Care subject area:
Intute - With millions of resources available on the Internet, it is difficult to find relevant and
appropriate material even if you have good search skills and use advanced search engines. Issues
of trust, quality and search skills are very real and significant concerns - particularly in a learning
context. The Intute database makes it possible to discover the best and most relevant resources in
one easily accessible place. You can explore and discover trusted information.
The database is split into broad subject areas; the most relevant for Early Childhood Education &
Care are the 'Education and Research Methods' and ‘Social Sciences’ sections and they can be
accessed from the Information Gateways section of the Electronic Resources page on the library
website.
August 2010.