Guides to the literature provide users with valuable information about materials in education. For example, a guide may provide lists of current and historical reference books and journals within the field. The guide would usually split the books by the type of information provided, such as books for elementary teachers as opposed to college students. Another guide might contain information about free curriculum materials for teachers. In addition, a guide might cover a certain area of education. For instance, a guide concerned with multicultural education would be a great source for students and teachers alike.
A few examples of Guides include:
American Higher Education: A Guide to the Reference Sources, Core List of Books and Journals in Education, Bibliographic Guide to Educational Research, The Educators Desk Reference (EDR): A sourcebook of Educational Information and Research, Education: A Guide to Reference and Information Sources and Education Journals and Serials: An Analytical Guide.
Bibliographies mainly provide library users with lists of materials about a certain subject often with abstracts, in this case with regard to education. For example, a book listing sources for distance education would be useful for an institution desiring to start providing online courses. It would cover the aspects required for a good starting point for the various aspects of such an endeavor. New materials are always being published, so no guide of this type would be complete. They are helpful because they reduce the time that a user would need to search for the information. It could provide insight to a user that is unfamiliar with the types of materials available.
A few examples of Bibliographies include:
Bibliographic Guide to Education, National Information Center for Educational Media, Distance Education: A Selected Bibliography, and Institutions of Higher Education: An International Bibliography.
Book reviews are critical for librarians in choosing proper materials for the library. Faculty may also use them for looking for information for their research or perhaps they want something added to their library’s collection. Students may also need to look for a book review for an assignment. Depending on the source used, information can include information about the level of a given book e.g. a book is written for an undergraduate student as opposed to a graduate student or researcher.
Media reviews can also provide key information for educators and librarians selecting materials. For example, when selecting an electronic encyclopedia, the ability to read reviews of the materials available allows a person to make the best choice possible. In paper, World Book is a common choice, but perhaps the multimedia edition is not as good as Microsoft Encarta or vice versa. Perhaps one encyclopedia costs more that the other. Whatever the case, this type of resource is valuable to have as part of a collection.
A few examples of Review sources include:
Educational Studies: A Journal in the Foundations of Education, The Review of Education, Review of Educational Research, Review of Research in Education, Media Review Digest, and Only the Best: The Cumulative Guide to Highest-Rated Educational Software, 1985-89, Preschool-Grade 12.
Dictionaries are important when it comes to looking for definitions of terms or concepts. These are specialized in nature because they are for education specifically. Some entries are longer than others are, and they provide the user with a starting point for information. For further information, an encyclopedia would be a good choice.
Thesauruses are works that provide users with proper terms used in place of others. For example, the thesaurus of ERIC descriptors provides the terms used for the subject headings in the ERIC database. This source can be helpful in order to use the best terms when searching. If someone is looking for user studies, the thesaurus will provide options for proper subject headings used such as USE STUDIES.
A few examples of Dictionaries and Thesauruses include:
The Dictionary of Educational Terms, Dictionary of Education, The Language of Learning: A Guide to Educational Terms, Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, and Thesaurus: European Education Thesaurus.
Encyclopedias can be valuable sources for finding information that is more in depth that the information found in dictionaries. Entries can be a few paragraphs to a few pages depending on the source. In addition, entries usually include sources for further reading, which can be important in looking for quality information about a topic. However, sources can be dated sometimes. It depends on the topic as well. If the topic is historical, then it may not matter.
A few examples of Excyclopedias include:
The Encyclopedia of Education, The International Encyclopedia of Education, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, and American Educators' Encyclopedia.
Indexes are very important for researchers because they offer them subjects and authors of journal articles about various topics within the field of choice, in this case education. An example of an index is Education Index, which covers many scholarly education journals with thousands of articles for users to choose. The drawback to this type of source is that it does not provide the user with a preview of the article so to speak, as an abstract.
Abstracts provide users with more information than indexes. An example of this type of source is ERIC. It provides users with citations of articles, as does Education Index. However, it includes abstracts of the articles for further information to help researchers make better choices of relevant articles for their topic. ERIC is also electronic, so it provides the user with the ability to combine subjects much easier than a paper index does.
A few examples of Indexes and Abstracts include:
ERIC, Education Index, and Canadian Education Index.
Directories provide much needed information for patrons. Many directories provide information about schools, which can be at any level including elementary and secondary schools, private schools, and post-secondary schools. One of the popular directories for post-secondary education is the Peterson’s Guide to 4-Year Colleges, which provides institutions, costs, number of students, student/faculty ratios, and short descriptions for users to read. This type of directory is valuable when students are trying to make decisions concerning the right colleges to attend.
A few examples of Directories include:
American Universities and Colleges, Peterson's Annual Guides to Graduate Study, Patterson's American Education, and The World of Learning.
Handbooks provide information about various topics in a discipline. In education, examples of topics of handbooks are educational psychology, special education, or educational research. They provide chapters of information with respect to the topic of the book. For example, a handbook of educational psychology would have chapters covering the various aspects of the field. In some cases these books could provide guidelines for users.
A few examples of Handbooks include:
Handbook of Educational Ideas and Practices, Distance Education: A Practical Guide, International Handbook of Teachers and Teaching, International Handbook of Education and Development: Preparing Schools, Students and Nations for the Twenty-First Century, Blackwell Handbook of Education, and Handbook of World Education: A Comparative Guide to Higher Educational Systems of the World
Biographical sources provide users with information about important individuals in the world, specifically educators in this case. Information included in this type of source could include when and where the person was born, positions held, concepts that the person was responsible for, a list of publications by the person, and a bibliography for further reading. This type of source would be very helpful for students learning about important figures in the field of education. Some of these sources are historical in nature and some of them are more current in nature.
A few examples of Biographical Sources include:
Directory of American Scholars, Biographical Dictionary of American Education, The National Faculty Directory, and Who's Who in American Education
Statistical sources are very important for researchers because they provide insight into various issues in education. For example, these sources can provide rankings of schools or information on the status of education for states or other countries. The government has the National Center for Education Statistics, which collects a large amount of information for users. They have a web site, which gives a variety of information for users to view in full-text form.
A few examples of Statistical Sources include:
Digest of Educational Statistics, The Condition of Education, Almanac of Higher Education, and Educational Rankings Annual 1999
Internet sources are especially useful for getting up-to-date information for various topics, in this case education. Resources can include databases such as ERIC, information about schools, sites for students with information about science projects, information about financial aid, and statistical information to name a few. Much research is done on the Internet, so using the best sites for the best information available is critical for users.
A few examples of Internet Resources include:
Educom, Canada's SchoolNet, ED. U.S. Department of Education, World Wide Web Server, College and University Home Pages, College and University Rankings, NCBE: National Clearinghouse for Biligual Education, and World Lecture Hall
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Prepared as part of the requirements for the Master of Library Science Degree
Department of Information and Library Science
School of Communication Information and Library Science
Southern Connecticut State University
