Guide to Research in Children's and Young Adult Literature
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General Information
About the School Collection
The School (S)-Collection at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was created in 1941 with an initial collection of approximately 3000 titles. Since 1980, the collection has been housed in room 106 of the Education and Social Science Library (ESSL). The S-Collection consists of more than 108,000 catalogued and 36,000 uncatalogued titles of children's and young adult literature. The S-Collection is one of the most comprehensive collections of children's literature in the nation, second only to the Library of Congress.
Location and Organization
The most current and most frequently used materials are located in room 106 of the Education and Social Science Library. To get to the S-Collection, turn left after entering the ESSL and head towards the doorway next to the circulation desk. Continue down the hallway and through the Curriculum Collection to the S-Collection.
All books in the S-Collection have an S in their call number. Further shelving information is as follows:
- SE. - picture book/easy reader; located on east wall
- S.# - non-fiction; located on perimeter of S-Collection
- S.letter - longer fiction; located in center of room
- SB.letter of subject's last name - biography; located immediately following longer fiction
- Reference materials and journals are located immediately opposite the windows
Most materials in the S-Collection circulate for two weeks. Exceptions include the reference collection, which is non-circulating, and the S-Collection journals, which circulate for 2 hours/students and 24 hours/faculty.
Because of the size of the collection, many materials are located in Education Storage and Education Remote Storage. Education Storage is located in the basement of the Main Library, while the Education Remote Storage facility is located on the southwest corner of campus. The online catalog will indicate the location of items.
- To obtain materials from Education Storage, fill out a red request card (available at the Reference Desk, Circulation desk, or Rm. 106) and give it to the staff member at the Reference Desk. Materials are retrieved from Education Storage every hour on the half hour (9:30, 10:30, etc.) and will be held at the Reference Desk for up to 48 hours after retrieval.
- To obtain materials from Education Remote Storage, fill out an orange request card (available at the Reference Desk, Circulation desk, or Rm. 106) and give it to the staff member at the Reference Desk. These books are usually available in 2-4 days. You will receive an email notifying you when your books are ready for pickup.
Other Locations
While the S-Collection is the largest and most accessible collection of children's literature on campus, there are several other places where users may find useful materials. The location of any particular item will always be noted in the online catalog so that the user knows where to find the needed books.
- The Rare Book and Manuscript Library, located in room 346 of the Main Library, maintains the historical (pre-1921) children's collection and all books with moveable parts.
- Some non-English books are held in the Modern Languages and Linguistics Library (rm. 425), the Asian Library (rm. 325), and the Slavic and East Europe Library (rm. 225).
- Juvenile literature related to Abraham Lincoln or the State of Illinois can also be found in the Illinois History and Lincoln Collection (rm. 422).
- The Center for Children's Books, which moved from the University of Chicago in 1993, also maintains a non-circulating collection of all the books reviewed in their publication, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. The CCB is located in room 24 in the basement of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (501 E. Daniel).
- The University Laboratory High School Library is part of the UIUC library system and houses a number of works of young adult literature along with graphic novels and periodicals.
S-Collection Journals
There are three different types of journals located in the S-Collection:
- Children's Magazines: These titles are written for children in magazine format and include, among others, Skipping Stones, Faces, and New Moon. The selection is limited and the public libraries offer far greater variety of this sort of item.
- Review Journals: These journals include reviews of children's and young adult literature and prove a useful resource when gathering information on a particular title. Review journals include The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and Horn Book Magazine.
- Critical Journals: These journals feature scholarly articles about children's literature. Some title are The Lion and the Unicorn and Children's Literature Association Quarterly. Additional articles about literature may be found in journals in the Education Periodicals section, such as Language Arts and Reading Teacher.
While the S-Collection offers a variety of journals, users will find many more useful titles located in the Library and Information Science Library in room 306 of the Main Library. Journals such as Booklist, School Library Journal and Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA) include book reviews, and users will find many topical articles in Children's Literature in Education and New Advocate, available in the LIS library.
Collection Development Guidelines
The S-Collection is a predominantly English language collection of books and other print materials. While some audiocassettes can be found in the S-Collection, no videotapes are collected. Both the Champaign Public Library and Urbana Free Library have extensive children's video collections available for circulation.
The works of a select list of children's authors and illustrators are collected comprehensively. To be included in this list, recommended authors and illustrators are evaluated on the strength of their work as a whole, as indicated by the awards they have received. Higher emphasis is placed on scholarly awards such as the Caldecott, the Newbery, or awards for the entire body of the author or illustrator's work. However, some consideration is also given to awards within a specific genre, like science fiction, or awards from parents and children's choice groups. For more information on awards, visit the Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature, which maintains links to listings of most major children's literature awards.
Certain emphasis is also placed on collecting books in the following genres:
- Aesop's fables
- alphabet books
- beginning-to-read books
- biography (with a special focus on Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin)
- children's classics
- folk literature and mythology
- modern fantasy
- picture books and wordless picture books
- pop-up books
Locating Resources for Your Research
Finding Books
The following information will assist you in finding titles and call numbers of books on a given topic. For information about the physical location of a book, please refer to the section on the Location and Organization of the School Collection.
Juvenile & Young Adult Literature
To search for children's and young adult books in the online catalog, choose the "Advanced Search" option. Then type in your search terms in the following box. If you are searching for fiction, use "juvenile fiction" as a subject term. For example, if you wanted to find a fiction book about vegetables, search for "juvenile fiction" as a subject on the first line and "vegetables" as a subject on the second.
Juvenile fiction - as a phrase - subject words
AND
vegetables - as a phrase - subject words
If you are searching for non-fiction, use the phrase "juvenile literature".
Juvenile literature - as a phrase - subject words
AND
vegetables - as a phrase - subject words
Books About Children's Literature
To search for books about literature for children and young adults, use the online catalog. Choose the "Advanced Search" option. Enter the term "Children's Literature" as a phrase in the first search line. Enter the subject words for your topic on the second line. As is always the case when searching databases, the key is finding the right term or combination of terms.
A general search that is very useful in exploring topics is:
Children's literature - as a phrase - subject words
AND
History and criticism - as a phrase - subject words
To search more specifically, include a key word for your topic. For example, if you wanted to find scholarly books about how gender is dealt with in children's literature, search for:
Children's literature - as a phrase - subject words
AND
Gender - as a phrase - any words
This search results in several hits. Some of these may be useful, others may not. Remember that the key is determining the best search phrase and experimenting with various words. If you are encountering difficulty you can always Ask a Librarian.
Reference Sources
The S-Collection has a number of very useful print reference materials, including bibliographies. Click on the links below to view annotated lists of resources from the Guide to the S-Collection, or click here to view the entire guide.
- Authors, Illustrators, and Illustrations
- Bibliographies
- Book Reviews
- Catalogs
- Development & History of Children's Literature
- Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
- Newbery, Caldecott, & Other Awards
- Poetry, Songs, & Fairy Tales
- Storytelling, Booktalks, & Plays
Information on Authors and Illustrators
The S-Collection Authors and Illustrators page contains links to a variety of web and print resources.
The Internet is also a wonderful source of information on authors and illustrators. There are many sites that feature brief biographical information on a variety of authors. It is also quite common for contemporary authors to have their own web sites.
Finding Book Reviews
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) is a service that offers a wide range of information on children's literature. The database allows users to search for titles by genre, age, grade, topic, author, illustrator, and other categories. It contains more than 200,000 reviews of children's books--all full text searchable from 33 review sources. Click here for more information on using this resource.
NoveList contains reviews of children's and young adult literature taken from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.
Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble frequently include reviews from a variety of respected review journals, including Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist and Kirkus. Keep in mind however that these are commercial sites, so negative reviews or negative portions of reviews are not likely to be included.
Finding Articles About Your Topic
To search for articles, you will need to use an online database. These databases function as indexes for the contents of scholarly journals and are usually subject-specific. Some useful databases for researching children's and young adult literature are ERIC, Education Full Text, and Library Literature. If you need any assistance in using an online database, stop by the reference desk in the main room of the Education Library or Ask-A-Librarian!
ERIC
ERIC is an electronic database for articles and documents in education. It includes many citations for articles about children's and young adult literature. For more information about searching for articles in ERIC, see the ERIC via CSA Tutorial. A free version of ERIC is also available on the Web at www.eric.ed.gov.
Like ERIC, this database indexes many leading journals in education. Although it is not quite as comprehensive as ERIC, many more articles are available in full-text. After opening up the link, click on the small box in front of "Education Full Text." As with any database, the key is finding the right terms for the topic you have selected. Helpful database subject headings for conducting your search include, "Children's Literature," "Picture books for chidren," and "Young Adult Literature."
- To combine multiple terms in Education Full Text, use multiple search boxes. For example, if you wanted to search for articles about multiculturalism in children's literature, type "children's literature" as a subject on the first line and "multiculturalism" as a subject on the second. When you hit Start, Education Full Text will search simultaneously for articles that include both terms.
- An advantage of Education Full Text is that many articles are available in full text by clicking on one of the icons below the citation. Users can also email articles to themselves by following the Print Email Save link on the left-hand menu bar, or export the article citation to RefWorks.
Library Literature
Another useful database for gathering research is Library Literature. After opening up the link, click on the small box in front of "Library Lit & Info Full Text". The search procedures for this database will be the same as those described for "Education Full Text" above. Please note that you can search Library Literature at the same time you are searching Education Full Text by checking both database names in the area above the search boxes.
There are many other databases that may provide useful materials for your research. For further assistance or suggestions on alternative places to look, feel free to Ask-A-Librarian!
