Sub sections:
Children's literature
Contents
This subject guide lists some materials available at UNE.
Recommended readings
Begin by looking for any books or journal articles recommended by your lecturers or tutors. Many of these are held in the Open Reserve Collection or on eReserve.
Finding reserve items
To search for Reserve items held for your unit:
1. Click on the link to Reserve search in the black banner in the online catalogue.
2. Type in the unit abbreviation, eg EDEE 323
3. Select the Course ID option from drop-down menu
4. Click on the relevant link
You can also search for items placed in Reserve by instructor name.
1. Type in the instructor's family name, eg. Buckland
2. Select the Instructor option from drop-down menu
3. Click on the relevant link
Loan periods for Reserve items
Reserve items may be used all day within the Open Reserve area, or borrowed from the Service Desk for an hour at a time for use elsewhere in the library. After 4.00 pm you may borrow them overnight, but they must be back when the library opens (by 9.00 am weekdays, and by 1.00 pm weekends).
eReserve items
Items in eReserve have been scanned and made available for you to download from the Web.
1. Click on eReserve on the University Library home page.
2. Enter your UNE username and password when prompted.
3. Units you are enrolled in are listed at the top of the screen, or you can search for material by Unit Code, author or keywords.
4. Once you have located the article you need, click on its title, agree to the Copyright regulations, and the article should load on your screen for you to read, save or print out.
Browsing the library for children's literature
The main Dewey Decimal Classification numbers for children's literature are:
398 — folklore and folk literature, including mythology, faily tales, and rhyming games. (808.94 will also have some books on fairy tales, myths and legends in the Curriculum Resources Centre)
808.9 — older books on children's literature, criticism, bibliographies
| 808.936 | books for 'infants' eg picture books | |
| 808.937 | books for lower primary | |
| 808.938 | books for upper primary and lower high school |
808.89282 — literature for and by 'specific kinds of persons' ie children and young adults. Here you will find collections of biographical information on children's authors, bibliographies, criticism and text books devoted to children's literature.
Books on children's literature are also found in different parts of the collection, including the general literature section. Works on literature have call numbers in the 800s (eg Australian literature A820s, English literature 820s, or American Literature 810s). Check the online catalogue for specific items!
Items in the Curriculum Resources Centre have a call number prefaced by CR. If an item is held in Reserve, this is indicated by the 'Availability' information for that item.
Using the online catalogue
Detailed assistance in using the online catalogue is available from the eSKILLS UNE web pages.
Here are some quick hints on Browse searching
The best way to search for a known item in the catalogue is by author or title.
If you have a general area of interest but don't know the name of a specific book, try a subject search. For the correct subject headings, consult the large red volumes of Library of Congress Subject Headings near the Information Desk on the ground floor of Dixson Library or contact the Information Desk on 02 6773 2458.
Some useful subject searches are:
| children's literature - history and criticism | children's literature - books and reading |
| children's literature, australian | children's literature - study and teaching |
| children - books and reading | children's literature - book reviews - indexes |
If you don't know a specific subject area, you can use a Keyword search in the online catalogue.
To find works by a particular author, try an Browse Author search (eg. voigt c). To find critical or biographical information about an author and their work, do a Browse Subject search.
Reference Collection
The Reference Collection in Dixson Library contains dictionaries, encyclopaedias, bibliographies and other ready reference tools. These will help you to clarify terms and find background information for your assignment topics. Increasingly, reference materials are available in electronic form. Paper resources are listed below, but also try these links:
Gale Virtual Reference Library includes the following titles:
Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood
UXL Graphic Novelists
Oxford Reference Online
Search Oxford dictionaries and encyclopedias listed by subject.
Includes the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children's Literature, as well as language and subject dictionaries.
Dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks| R809.89282/C762 | The Continuum encyclopedia of children's literature. New York, Continuum, 2003. |
| R809.89292/I61/2004 | International companion encyclopedia of children's literature. Peter Hunt (ed.) 2 volumes. New York, Routledge, 2004. |
| R809.89282/O98 | The Oxford companion to Australian children's literature. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1993. |
| 809.89282/S272i | Images of Australia, a history of Australian children's literature 1941-1970. Maurice Saxby. Sydney, Scholastic, 2002. This includes excellent comprehensive chapters on a range of relevant topics (genres, educational objectives, etc.) |
| 809.89282/S272p | The proof of the puddin' : Australian children's literature 1970-1990. Maurice Saxby. Sydney, Ashton Scholastic, 1993. Companion volume bringing the coverage in the volume above to 1990. |
Biographical works with some critical material
| R808.9/W628/1996 | Who's who of Australian children's writers. 2d ed. Port Melbourne, Thorpe, 1996. |
| R808.9/A939 | Authors and artists for young adults. Detroit, Gale, 1989. 5 vols. |
| R809.89282/M234 | Major authors and illustrators for children and young adults. Detroit, Gale, 1993. 6 vols. |
| R820.99282/S143 | St. James Guide to Children's writers. 5th ed. Detroit, St. James, 1999. |
| R820.9091/T971/1999 | St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers. 2d ed. Detroit, St. James, 1999 |
Bibliographies, Guides
| R808.9/R43 | Research and professional resources in children's literature. Kathy Short (ed.) Newark, International Reading Association, 1995 |
| R808.9/M953a | Australian children's books, a bibliography. Marcie Muir and Kerry White(eds.) Carlton, Melbourne University Press, 1992-2004. 3 vols. |
Journals
Journal articles are not listed individually in the Online Catalogue. Use either electronic indexes and abstracts or paper versions of the same to find out what articles have been published. Then check on the online catalogue to see if the library holds the journal you need. Do a Title search on the journal title.
Journals that have articles on children's literature may be education journals, librarianship journals, and general interest magazines as well as those devoted specifically to children's literature. This is when indexes are useful!
Some useful journals in children's literature include:| P808.9/P5361 | Children's Literature Association Quarterly |
| 808.905/C536 | Children's Literature, Annual of the MLA 1993 to current in paper |
| P808.9/C536 | Children's Literature in Education 1971-2003 in paper; electronic from 1999 |
| P808.9/L763 | The Lion and the Unicorn, A Critical Journal of Children's Literature 1990 - current in paper; electronic from 2003 |
| P028.5/L7766 | The Literature Base 1991 to current in paper |
| P028.5/M188 | Magpies, Talking about Books for Children (partly available in APA Full text) 1991 to current in paper |
New Review of Children's Literature & Librarianship |
|
| P027.625/O63 | Orana, Journal of School and Children's Librarianship 1977 - 2005 in paper. Ceased publication (partly available in APA Full text) |
| P808.9/P214 | Papers, Explorations into Children's Books 1991 - current in paper |
| P808.9/R287 | Reading Time |
| P028.5/S578 | Signal, Approaches to Children's Books 1983 - 2002. Ceased publication |
Databases Indexes & Abstracts
These give references to articles, reviews, chapters, and papers which appear in journals (also known as periodicals, serials or magazines), books, reports, and conference proceedings. Electronic databases can be accessed from Find Resources on the UNE Libraries web site. Click Journal articles & databases. Then click on the index of your choice in the alphabetical listing. Some provide journals in full text; some provide citations and abstracts only. Ask at the Service Desk for more details.
To find out how to find information for your assignments, how to use indexes, how to cite your references or write an essay, use eSKILLS UNE
Useful indexes for children's literature include:
Austlit — has a section devoted to Australian children's literature. Includes information about the author, a list of their works and an index to critical material on these works. Dixson Library has a publication on using Austlit to find results effectively.
ERIC — indexes education journals and reports and is particularly good for children's literature in an educational context. Indexes Children's Literature in Education as well as a number of other journals relevant to children's literature.
Gale Databases include a multidisciplinary journal index offering full text articles for hundreds of academic journals, newspapers and magazines. Some full text journals include Horn Book, Reading Today and Teacher Librarian. Search using either the subject headings listed above, or specific keywords such as author name or genre.
Ingenta — is an online service that indexes thousands of journals from all disciplines. It can be searched as a journal index, with free access to some articles, others can be obtained for a fee.
ProQuest — a multidisciplinary collection indexing more than 300 education journals with full text, including Horn Book Magazine, Bookbird and Children's Literature.
The Source - a subject, author, and title index to books, short stories, and poetry for children, a listing of children's literature awards worldwide, and a cumulated index to Magpies and Literature Base.
Children's literature abstracts — (R809.89282/C5365) Paper version only. Comprehensively indexes a number of journals. UNE has from no. 64 to 107 (1989 - 1999).
Web Resources
As well as fan sites, like the Harry Potter site www.harrypotter.com, there are sites that are useful sources of information on children's literature. Find individual author websites by means of a Google search.
Some sites are subject guides to particular types of children's literature. An example is the Children's picture book database. This indexes and abstracts over 5,000 picture books for children. It was designed as a tool for teachers creating literature-based thematic units for all disciplines.
Other sites provide information on the history of children's literature. One example is CHILDE. This is a project funded under the European Commission's Culture 2000 programme. It provides images from collections of early children's books in Europe, links to other sites and a bibliography for further reading.
Children's books from the early 20th century in a number of languages can be downloaded free from Children's Books Online. These books are out of copyright.
Similar is the Literature for Children website containing more than 550 British and American children's books in full text dating from before 1850 to 1950.
Dixson Library has constructed a number of guides on particular children's authors. These authors include Ursula Le Guin, E.B. White, Alan Garner, Janet & Alan Ahlberg, Maurice Sendak and others. See the Research Guide for English.
Further assistance
Need Help? Ask at the Service Desk in Dixson Library. You can phone the Service Desk on 02 6773 2458 (extn 2458) during Library opening hours or send an online enquiry using the Ask a Librarian service.