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Research Tips

New York Times Still Free

On March 28th, the New York Times’ website enacted a paywall.  Formerly free to all, the site’s content will now be limited to 20 articles per month for non-subscribers.  For a detailed FAQ about the new policy, click here.  The 20-per-month limit does not apply to articles linked through blogs, Twitter or Facebook.

For Wheelock students, staff and faculty, unlimited access to the Times from 1980-present is still available.  While the Library does not have a digital subscription directly through the NYT site, we do subscribe to a variety of databases that offer full content.  Click here for a list of these databases and their coverage ranges (Though not included on the list, access is also available through Massachusetts Newsstand).  You can also find this list by searching for “New York Times” in our Full-Text Journal Finder.

Viewing article titles on the NYT site is still free, so if you find something you’d like to read, accessing it through a Library database will save on your monthly quota.  If the article dates before 1980, we’d be happy to find it for you via interlibrary loan.

Please contact us or visit the reference desk if you have any questions!


Turkeys

I love those silly turkeys that kids make by tracing their hands. There are all kinds of variations (do a Google image search to see some approaches you might not have considered…), they’re adorable, and fun and easy to make. But they do not constitute meaningful curriculum about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, or harvest festivals.
Every year Wheelock students flock to the Library to gather Thanksgiving books for their early childhood and elementary classrooms. The students who come early are grateful, because every year demand outstrips supply; it is a popular topic. Extend the impact of the books you do find by using free online resources. The journal Booklist has published a guide called “Classroom Connections: Thanksgiving Books as Hooks—Linking Literature to Primary Sources.”

“As your thoughts turn to turkey, pumpkin pie, fall leaves, and football,
consider connecting these high-quality Thanksgiving-themed books to Library of Congress resources. Go beyond the words on the page—dig into primary sources, engage your students, spark critical thinking, and guide them toward a deeper understanding of Thanksgiving traditions and history.”

Also try the Library’s Curriculum Resources Subject Guide, which is available from the Library’s homepage. The Plimoth Plantation and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum websites (in the Guide) are full of resources, and you can easily find many more in all of the other selected websites on that page by searching for “Thanksgiving” with the custom search box at the top of the list of websites.
And then be thankful you do not have to pluck and clean a turkey before you can eat it. Did you see the size of those things?

Ann Glannon

“Turkeyday” image by Alicia Alferman from http://www.themayfly.com/weblog/2007/11/turkey_day_break.html and used with permission.


Credo Reference

Check out one of our finest online reference resources, Credo Reference. Encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books are great sources for reliable information. Reference books are a great way to familiarize yourself with a new topic. Credo Reference makes the process even easier as you can quickly search for relevant entries.

This online resource does a little of everything. Credo boasts a robust array of online reference sources. At your disposal are great reference sources such as the Encyclopedia of School Psychology, Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World, etc. These sources and more are at your searching fingertips. You can further break down your search by subject in the drop down menu next to the search box or browse the subject lists under the “Find a Book” link.

The Concept Map is a particularly useful tool for visualizing the topic of your research. The tool graphically displays your central topic and related terms in an interconnected map. Scrolling over related terms connects you to articles and further information through a pop up window. Try searching your term in the Concept Map interface to narrow or expand on your topic.

Under the “Gadgets” link an assortment of tools are available. You can convert measurements like imperial pints to other volumes or you can convert fuel consumption. If you’re having trouble spelling a word you can use the “Crossword search,” using “?” in place of letters, especially useful for crossword puzzle addicts. Other gadget searches include; persons, holidays, quotations, places and definitions.


Premier Searching in Academia

Ever wonder where to start? Need scholarly information for your paper, that your professor will accept? Need more than just the World Wide Web? Academic Search Premier (ASP), under our Find Articles and E-Books drop down menu, offers a great solution to all these questions and more. ASP offers a wide range of sources on an equally broad base of subjects, from accident analysis to zoology.

Simply try entering your topic into the search box or try some of the more advanced features. Some of the advanced searching features include “Subject Terms,” “Images,” limiting by publication date and type and an “Index” search function. If you need peer reviewed articles make sure to check off the “Scholarly (peer reviewed) Journal” selection under the search box. And if you need the article right away select the “Full Text” option. Don’t be afraid to experiment and play with all the buttons.

Academic Search Premier is a great starting point for your research. If you have any questions stop by or call (617-879-2222) the Library for further information or help with your research.


What Do You Mean It’s Not a Children’s Collection?

You know, those books on floor 2M – they’re not a children’s collection.

They are undeniably a collection of books written for children. And we certainly expect the books to be used with children. So why isn’t it a children’s collection?

Because this is a college library. That collection is for you. Unlike a public or a school library, our juvenile book collection is built to support college level teaching and learning about children’s literature. The collection is intended to be mediated for children by adults, not to provide direct services to children.

“OK, but what does that mean?” you might ask.

Because our collection is a study and teaching collection, it includes titles that may not represent current thinking about what titles are most appropriate to use with children. Since an important part of our mission is to help college students learn to be discriminating users of books written for children, we have a range of materials for comparison, to help trace historical trends, to illustrate controversies in children’s literature, and to reflect the state of the children’s book publishing industry.

Most books in the collection are ones that have been favorably reviewed by a range of authoritative sources. It is an important purpose of the collection to provide materials for our students to use with children in their field placements. But be aware that there are multiple purposes for the collection, and so it is up to you to always assess the suitability of any materials you plan to use with children. The Library’s Children’s Literature Subject Guide includes guides that can help you choose wisely, as well as lists of recommended titles.

(Oh, and p.s. – contrary to urban legend, it is NOT the largest collection of children’s books in Boston. Boston Public Library has over 130,000 juvenile books, more than ten times as many as we have. We still rather like our collection though…)