Brooks Library Research Guides: Education
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Finding News Articles
Handbooks & Guides
Images & Primary Resources
Items Of Interest
This title now includes over 775 maps, with locator, physical and political maps for each country, over 120 island maps, state maps for North America, Canada, and Mexico, and more than 100 city maps. It is part of a suite of reference materials available through the subscription database Oxford Reference Online.
For digital collections of original maps, see also the research guide section "Images Online & in Databases."
Print Location: Stacks 4th Floor LA2311 .B54 (3 vols.)
Biographies of American educators from colonial to modern times (for this set of dictionaries modern times refers to those individuals retired by 1975).
Print Location: Ref LA 2311 O55 1997
Biographies of American educators from 1975 to 1997.
The G.V.R. Library includes, among many others, the following electronic encyclopedias:
- Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education (2 vols., 2008)
- Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration (2 vols., 2006)
- Encyclopedia of Environment and Society (5 vols., 2007)
- Encyclopedia of American Immigration (4 vols., 2001)
- Encyclopedia of Immigration and Migration in the American West (2 vols., 2006)
- Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology (2 vols., 2008)
- Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society (3 vols., 2008)
- Encyclopedia of Social Psychology (2 vols., 2007
Search results in the Gale Virtual Reference Library will include all encyclopedias unless you click on a specific title and use the Quick Search box within the specific title page.
Print Location: Ref LB15 .H57 1999
Dictionary of concepts, pedagogy, trends, legislation, people and places with historical significance to the development of education in the United States. Arranged alphabetically by topic, not chronologically. Includes bibliography. Useful for biography of educators, as well.
With over two million entries, Oxford Reference Online is a superb cross-searchable resource to use when you are at the "looking for a clue" or "needing verification" stages of your research. Oxford Reference provides quality, up-to-date information from a series of well-respected books--and unlike Wikipedia you can cite Oxford Reference in a paper!
Use Quick Reference materials to discover a variety of Subjects, Timelines, Quotations, English Dictionaries, and Bilingual Dictionaries.
Oxford's Reference Library is divided into Subject Categories, drawn from the 308 volumes of the Oxford Reference Library. Those categories are:
Assistance and advice with using the Quick Reference and the Reference Library are available at this link, and by contacting your friendly neighborhood Brooks Library Librarians.
Cattrax is the online catalog that describes nearly all the materials held by the Brooks Library: books, government documents, maps, microforms, journals, and other items. Below is everything you may want to know about using Cattrax:
Using Cattrax to find an item in the Brooks Library:
1. Enter a search term--a word, a phrase, whatever--in the search box.
2. Use the drop-down menu to select keyword/word search, title search, subject search, author search, or one of the other options. Click "Search."
3. Results that are "relevant" to your search term will be retrieved. Examine the results. Repeat steps 1 through 3 as needed.
(Note: Information is often described in several different ways. You may need to try a variety of terms before you find ones that produce the best results. And spelling counts.)
4. Find your book/journal/other item. All books are shelved on the 3rd and 4th floors of the main campus library according to Library of Congress subject classification. Books labeled with call numbers between A and J can be found on the 3rd floor, while books classified as K to Z can be found on the fourth floor. All government documents, maps, and microforms can be found on the 3rd floor, and all musical recordings on the 4th floor. Physical journals, magazines, and serials are housed on the 2nd floor, while DVDs, video tapes and films may be found on the 1st floor. Children's books are located on the 4th floor.
More Information about Cattrax:
You can sort your Cattrax search results by relevance, date, or title by clicking on those words below the search box.
Click on a title to see detailed bibliographic information about that item. The bibliographic record or "bib record" will contain additional information about the book/item: the author, location, call number, often a summary, status, subject terms, etc. The bib record will also have a link to a location map, two ways to send the information to your mobile device, a citation tool, and often book cover images.
You can save the bib record to either "My Lists" (requires you to use your Library Log-in) or you can "Save to Bag" and remember to email, save, or print the resulting list of titles before you finish your session with Cattrax.
Once you have saved the useful results from your first search, you can perform more searches--perhaps starting by opening the author link, the subject terms (toward the bottom of the bib record), or the call number in a new browser tab, or by using the search box to start a totally new search.
(Note: If you click "Call #," you can sort search results by something like shelf order, allowing you to browse for books on similar topics. Of course, you may wish to look on the actual physical shelves--discovery happens in many ways.)
Additional Cattrax Information:
The “Request” service, located in the upper left of a bib record page, is only available for Center Campus Students. This is because Center campus students would need to use more than the stairs or the elevator to get a book from Brooks Library. (If you are a main campus student wishing to check out a book in a Center Library, please consult the Circulation Desk.)
The "Modify Search" link at the top of any Cattrax page is almost the same as the "Advanced Search" option. The "Modify Search" option is very useful for narrowing down your list of results. The "Limit/Sort Search" option is a way to narrow your subject, author, or title search results.
If you have the citation for an article, you can search for journal titles by selecting "Journal/Serial Title" in the search options. Using this tool, you can discover if the library has access to print or digital copies of the journal in question. The library often has access to a journal through more than one database. If you do not succeed in locating the journal or article that you need, please consult one of our charming Brooks Library Librarians, or submit a request to our very resourceful Interlibrary Loan Department.
If your professor said that something you needed to read was on "Reserve" (the professor may have said "in the library" or something roughly equivalent), you can locate the item by searching in Cattrax by "Course" or "Prof/TA"--that is, by course or professor's name.
Last but certainly not least, if your item is not available in Cattrax, try requesting it through Summit, the unified catalog of 37 universities and colleges in the Pacific Northwest. If an item is also unavailable through Summit, you may wish to request it by Interlibrary Loan.
The ETC provides services, resources, and training for the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) faculty, staff and students through the ETC library which houses the various library collections, computers and the Multimedia Production Lab. The ETC is intended to serve as an exemplary model of educational technology resources and educational curriculum materials for K-12 preservice and in-service teachers in the state of Washington. The ETC library circulates materials and equipment to the CTL faculty, staff and students from its various collections and will continue to be updated to reflect current best-practice educational materials, including universally designed and accessible resources and technology for diverse populations.
The Brooks Library has permanent access to 3037 digital books from the EBSCO eBook Collection. EBSCO eBooks are digital full-text versions of books in the areas of:
You can copy and paste from these ebooks, you can access them from off-campus, and you can save portions of them as a pdf.
Summit is the unified library catalog of 37 universities, colleges, and community colleges in the Pacific Northwest. Through Summit you have access to over 9.2 million distinct books, CDs, DVDs, and more (that the Summit unified collection comprises over 28.7 million items virtually assures you of access to a copy of what you want or need). The unified catalog enables you to find and request items owned by any of Summit's member libraries. In general, requested items will arrive after three to five days, so it is important to plan ahead when utilizing Summit.
The Summit Catalog allows you to find not only books, CDs, and DVDs but also journal articles. In order to find an article through Summit, type a keyword, a subject, or an article title in the search box near the top of the Summit page (Advanced Search is also available). Select the "Full text articles" box (next to the Search Box or on the left side of the page). The results will be automatically sorted by "Library & Relevance," but you can also sort by author, title, or date. Click the title link of the article or the “View Now” or “View Full Text” link to see more of the article and then download a pdf of it. (You can also click “Find It @ Your Library,” select Central Washington University, and find out what access we have to that article here.)
If the article, book, DVD, CD, etc. that you wish or need to acquire appears to be unavailable through Summit please consult one of our talented Help Desk Librarians. It is quite possible that we have access to the article through one of our other databases, or that the book, article, etc., can be gotten through Interlibrary Loan.
WorldCat is an essential service run by the imaginatively named Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs.
WorldCat aspires to be a library catalog for the entire world; it contains all the records cataloged by the more than 72,000 OCLC member libraries around the world. WorldCat offers millions of bibliographic records and includes records in 400 languages.
The more than 179 million records cataloged by OCLC member libraries include books, manuscripts, websites and internet resources, maps, computer programs, musical scores, films, slides, videotapes, DVDs, newspapers, journals and magazines, sound recordings, articles, chapters, and papers. The dates covered in WorldCat range from before 1000 BCE to literally earlier today.
The Basic Search is useful when you know precisely what you are looking for. The Advanced Search is the default search and works well for most everyone. There is also an Expert Search available in which you can write your own Boolean Search Expressions.
Assistance is available from WorldCat at this link, and from Brooks Librarians at this link.
The World News (WN) Network was founded with the goal of being the most comprehensive, one-stop news resource on the Internet. Currently World News has over 130 million pages indexed covering news about, among many other topics, Film, Sport, Entertainment, Science, Business, Health and every Region on Earth.
World News Network presents news from more than 1000 reputable sources including mainstream providers (BBC, CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, etcetera) and more regional and local sources (The Independent, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Times of India, etcetera). This aggregation from other sites provides a wide variety of perspectives and different interpretations of breaking news events.
Information is available in two ways through the WN site. News links that open in a new tab go directly to the headlined article on its original site. Links that open in the same tab provide you with a link to the article on its original site, there are also links to the left and elsewhere on the page to information that helps you put the news article in context, as well as links to other version of the story or to related stories.
Project MUSE contains scholarly journals from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. Currently MUSE includes: 274,848 articles and 479,457 chapters by 199 publishers, and probably has some useful information about your topic.
The Brooks Library has a partial subscription to Project MUSE, thus some items are available to you in Project MUSE and some items are only available elsewhere. You can do a Journal Title Search, a Book Title Search, a Summit Search, a Google Scholar Search, or contact the Reference Desk to access a fulltext copy of any citations that might be unavailable in Project MUSE.
Project MUSE can be searched by Keyword (options for narrowing your search will be to the left of your results), browsed by Research Area, by All Title, by Publisher, by Book Title, and by Journal Title. An option for displaying "Only content I have full access to" is usually available, but since we often have access to that content through another database, Summit, or Interlibrary Loan, you should probably search Project MUSE both ways.
Our subscription to JSTOR (short for 'Journal Storage') contains every issue of over 600 core scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, the social sciences, as well as the natural and applied sciences. These journals have been digitized back to the first issue published (in some cases that is the 1600s). JSTOR also contains citations (bibliographic records) for more than 1,500 leading academic journals, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. (This is why it may not be a good idea to check "Include only content I can access," even if you are in a hurry. Articles not available in JSTOR are often available in our other databases or through Interlibrary Loan.)
As always, please consult the Reference Desk or the nearest librarian if you have any questions about finding articles in JSTOR or elsewhere.
A scholarly, multi-disciplinary database containing more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed, scholarly journals, and with indexing and abstracting for more than 9,300 journals. Academic Search Complete is an EBSCO database, and like most EBSCO databases it includes a "Choose Databases" link near the top of the page that enables you to search multiple EBSCO databases at the same time (an EBSCO multi-disciplinary database that is good to search at the same time as ASC is "MasterFILE Premier").
If the article whose title and abstract you found is not available in the Academic Search Complete database try clicking on "Search for Full Text". If that option does not provide you with the full-text of the article please consult a librarian or submit an Interlibrary Loan Request. Many articles are readily available in another database or through Interlibrary Loan and we are here to help you get the information you need!
The Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) provides this index of more than 27,000,000 of the articles published since 1990. The articles are from over 16,000 journals, covering nearly all fields of knowledge. The items indexed include every article, news story, letter, or other item listed on the table of contents page of the journal. This database also provides, for most items, a list of libraries that have the journal title – information that makes finding the article in the Brooks Library Collection, or through Interlibrary Loan, much easier.
Please ask the Reference Help Desk, on the 1st Floor of the Brooks Library, or at (509) 963-1021, for any assistance you might wish in searching this index or searching for citations found in the index.
Each week CQ Researcher explores in depth a single "hot issue in the news”. The topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education, science, technology, and more. There are 44 reports produced each year, including four expanded reports. Access is available online for issues back to 1991. Each 12,000-word CQ Researcher report can be read in its entirety or by section, each report includes a background and chronology, an assessment of the current situation, tables and maps, pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions, and bibliographies of key sources.
CQ Researcher is an excellent database to look in when you are ‘looking for a clue’. The extensive bibliography each article provides serves as a wonderful way to find more information about your topic.
"The EdITLib Digital Library is your source for peer-reviewed and published articles and papers on the latest research, developments, and applications related to all aspects of Educational Technology and E-Learning." NOTE: This used to be called the AACE [Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education] Digital Library].
Indexes and abstracts articles of at least one column in length from English-language periodicals and yearbooks published in the United States and elsewhere. English-language books relating to education published in 1995 or later are also indexed. Abstracting coverage begins with January 1994. Abstracts range from 50 to 300 words and describe the content and scope of the source documents. Full-text coverage begins in January 1996.
The new ERIC online system provides the public with a centralized ERIC Web site for searching the ERIC bibliographic database of more than 1.1 million citations going back to 1966. More than 107,000 full-text non-journal documents (issued 1993-2004), previously available through fee-based services only, arebe available for free. For items published before 1993, CWU owns the entire microfiche collection of ERIC Documents. For assistance, see a librarian in the Documents Dept., also on the 3rd floor.
Indexes more than 690 periodicals, plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s.
The PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International database covers a wide range of current and past public policy issues, emphasizing factual and statistical information. Business topics are covered, with emphasis on economic factors, industry surveys, business-societal interactions and similar issues, rather than details of business operations.
The PAIS International database is continually updated with information about over half a million journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference papers, web content, and more from over 120 countries throughout the world. (Newspapers and newsletters are not usually indexed.) A useful 'Advanced Search' is available, as well as a way to search for Figures & Tables.
PAIS is an index, it does not contain the full text of articles – but you do not care about that until you find a citation for an article you would like to read. When you find citations for possibly useful articles you can search for the full text by doing a Journal Title Search. You can also search for a full text copy through Google Scholar. As always more assistance in acquiring the full text of an article is available at the Reference Desk.
Note: The PAIS database is provided to us by Proquest. In the upper left corner of the PAIS search page there is a link that will say “Searching:1 database”. If you click that link you will see a list of the 9 databases that you can select and search through this interface. In addition to PAIS you can also search:
- ERIC (1966 - current),
- PAIS International (1972 - current),
- Physical Education Index (1970 - current),
- PILOTS: Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress (1871 - current),
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I (1639 - current),
- ProQuest Newsstand (1984 - current),
- Social Services Abstracts (1979 - current),
- Sociological Abstracts (1952 - current), and
- The Wall Street Journal (1984 - current).
(Three of these databases are fulltext. The Proquest Sitemap page can provide you with information about some useful options.)
U.S. Government portal to child care issues and federally sponsored programs. Includes information for researchers, such as data sets regarding child care and early education, child abuse, and household surveys.
Information on "No Child Left Behind" Act, along with other materials for children, parents, teachers and administrators. The children section includes interactive learning activities and puzzles, and a section called "For Tonight's Homework."
More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of Federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE web site.
Links to assessment, research, publications, web sites, and more.
Print Location: Ref Z1037 .L715 2001
A subject guide to picture books, including out of print titles that are likely to still be found in public and university library children's collections. There are five sections to search by: Subject Heading, Subject Guide, Bibliographic Guide, Title Index and Illustrator Index.
Print Location: Ref Z1037 .A1 C482 2004
The Children's Books in Print is an index to authors, titles and illustrators of books for children and young adult still in print and published within the United States. Volume 1 has a title index. Volume 2 contains the author and illustrator index. Within each entry, you'll find publisher contact information, bibliographic information (including information on an entire series), and the language in which the book is written. See also: Subject Guide to Children's Books in Print: REF Z1037 .A1 C483
Print Location: Ref Z1037 .A2 C67 2004
Awards presented to the best African-American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults. Includes annotated listing of their books as well as biographies of some of the winners.
Print Location: Ref Z5813 .A51
Used to be called the American Education Catalog (up to 1956) and then Textbooks In Print (1956-1970), El-Hi Textbooks in Print (1970-1984) and in 1985 took its most recent form. Lists nearly 200,000 textbooks for elementary to senior high school grade levels. Also included in this list are other reference books, maps, tests, etc. No audiovisual materials are mentioned here unless somehow connected to one of the textbooks listed.
Print Location: Ref Z1037 .A2 N474 2005
Put out by the Association for Library Service to Children. Brooks Library has each year from 1995 to 2005, except for 1997. Awards go out to books published the previous year. Search the author / illustrator index or browse by year (in reverse chronological order from 2005 to 1922 for Newbery Award winners; 2005-1938 for Caldecott Award winners.)
Print Location: Ref LB3051 .L4543 2000
Contains 120 instruments used in education and the social sciences for testing. The instruments are arranged under 36 topics, of which include Culture, Interpersonal Relations, Morale, Power / Authority / Control, Self Esteem, and Teacher Attitudes / Beliefs, among others.
From the homepage: "AwesomeStories is a gathering place of primary-source information. Its purpose - since the site was first launched in 1999 - is to help educators and individuals find original sources, located at national archives, libraries, universities, museums, historical societies and government-created web sites....This educational teaching/learning tool is also designed to support state and national standards. Each story on the site links to online primary-source materials which are positioned in context to enhance reading comprehension, understanding and enjoyment." In this website, you'll find that the images are well-explained with stories. At the time this website was added to the subject guide, login was not required (but it is free).
From the Library of Congress - provides access to over 7,000,000 historical documents, maps, films, photographs, and audio recordings. Includes lesson plans, activities, classroom tips, and more.
The American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916 to represent the economic, social and professional interests of classroom teachers. It is an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO. Five divisions within the organization represent the broad spectrum of AFT's membership: teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel (PSRP); local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff; and nurses and other healthcare professionals.
"Concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. ... This site contains divisional information, special interest groups, job anouncements and a membership form." The site also has full text publications and lists of resources you can then search for through the CWU library catalog and databases.
According to the site, "ASCD is an international, nonprofit, nonpartisan education association committed to the mission of forging covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all learners. Founded in 1943, ASCD provides professional development in curriculum and supervision; initiates and supports activities to provide educational equity for allstudents; and serves as a world-class leader in education information services."
The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The Center helps Americans better understand the role of public education in a democracy and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.
"Education Law Association, formerly NOLPE, is a nonadvocacy, nonprofit organization that provides an unbiased forum for the dissemination of information about current issues in education law. Members include attorneys, school administrators, teachers and students from across the United States, Canada and overseas."
National, non-profit organization. Purpose is to advance the education and general welfare of children and adults of normal or potentially normal intelligence who manifest disabilities of a perceptual, conceptual, or coordinative nature. Fact sheets and recent alerts/bulletins are available.
The NCLD Web site provides facts, news, resources, and links for persons with learning disabilities and their families. Extensive information on issues such as LD evaluation, legislation, outreach and educational programs, public policy, and legal rights.
"The National Education Association (NEA) is the nation's largest professional employee organization and is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 2.7 million members work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state, as well as in more than 14,000 local communities across the United States."
Book Index with Reviews™ (BIR) is a comprehensive database that provides information on over 5 million book titles. BIR also contains almost 800,000 full-text searchable book reviews from some of the most trusted reviewers: Library Journal, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Times Book Review.
Fiction and non-fiction book titles are included in the database, in all genres, to help you find books to read for fun, for information, or for research. BIR’s subject headings/genres and flexible search engine can help you find out about popular titles that are currently available, along with those that will soon be published or released.
Access test information, with some reviews of the tests available in print in the Mental Measurements Yearbook series. Search by alphabetic or category listings, or by keyword. You will find information on nearly 4,000 commercially available tests.
For the Mental Measurements Yearbook series, see Reference 1st Floor, Call Number Z5814 P8 B932. We have these for the years 1940-47; 1953; 1959; 1965; 1972; 1978; 1985; 1989; 1992; 1995; 1998; 2001; 2003; 2005; 2007; 2010. (Check catalog for most current year).
See also: Buros Desk Reference: Psychological Assessment in the Schools (Ref BF722 B8 1994).
Print Location: Ref LA217.2 A45 2005
Both current and historical tables of comparative statistics involved with American education. Also compares the U.S. to other countries.
Use this site to get finance information on public elementary/secondary education. For summary tables and figures, see the Finance Data page on this site or for specific public school district finance data, and comparisons with other school districts, visit the Public School District Finance Peer Search.
Brings together data from several NCES sources including: The Condition of Education, The Digest of Education Statistics, and Projections of Education Statistics.
This site contains links to social science statistical information available online. The links are organized into the following broad categories:
- General statistics and data
- Educational outcomes and institutions
- Elections and public opinion
- Finance and markets
- Health and nutrition
- Housing and migration
- Land and the environment
- National and international indicators
- Population and area statistics
- Social attitudes and behavior
- Socio-economic studies
- Statistical theory
(If you see any links in Intute or elsewhere that should be promoted to having their own entry in this or another Research Guide please let me know.)
"The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is one of the three centers of the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and reporting education information and statistics on the condition and progress of education at the preschool, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult levels, including data related to education in other nations. Included among its data collection efforts is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)."
StateMaster is a free resource which allows users to compare US States with over 3,000 different statistics. The site has graphing, plotting, mapping and correlation tools, as well as thousands of maps and flags and detailed state profiles.
"Best of History Web Sites" provides quick, convenient, and reliable access to online history-oriented resources across a wide range of categories. The site has links to over 1200 history-related web sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness. Also included are links to K-12 history lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games, quizzes, and more.
A program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
This site contains over five hundred links covering such topics as biology, biotechnology, diseases, evolution, and microbiology. Links are organized into sixteen main topics and sixty-five subtopics that support health and science education.
This site is a resource for teachers of American government and civics that "provides information about the U.S. Congress -- how it works, its members and leaders, and the public policies it produces." It includes "lesson plans and historical materials and up-to-the-minute information about Congress." Also find a glossary, and links to related sites. From the Dirksen Congressional Center.
Pages within this site contain tips, ideas, information and examples on lesson planning, news on school-related issues, administrative challenges, professional development and technology used in the classroom.
" builds on over a quarter century of experience providing high-quality resources and services to the education community. From the Information Institute of Syracuse, the people who created AskERIC, the Gateway to Educational Materials, and the Virtual Reference Desk, the Educator's Reference Desk brings you the resources you have come to depend on. 2,000+ lesson plans, 3,000+ links to online education information, and 200+ question archive responses."
The Internet Public Library (ipl2) digital collections include many different resources organized by Subject, Newspapers and Magazines, Special Collections created by the ipl2, a variety of Pathfinders on diverse topics, and special collections for Kids and Teens.
ipl2 offers thousands of annotated, reviewed links covering all academic disciplines. The available subject categories are:
- Arts & Humanities
- Business & Economics
- Computers & Internet
- Entertainment & Leisure
- Health & Medical Sciences
- Law, Government & Political Science
- Reference Resources
- Science & Technology
- Social Sciences
- Regional & Country Information
The Newspapers and Magazines portion of ipl2 contains links to newspapers across the US and around the world, as well as to magazines and journals classified by subject category. (All of the annotated links can be searched simultaneously.)
ipl2 also has some permanent exhibits - collections of unique, multimedia presentations. From lighthouse photographs to the classics of Western music, there is something here for everyone!
The ipl2 Pathfinders are a particularly excellent place to begin your research. The Pathfinders - extensive annotated lists of excellent resources for a specific topic - can be searched by Subject and Alphabetically. Looking through a couple of Pathfinders that are similar to your chosen/assigned topic can be of immense help to you.
Much of the information you would find through the ipl2 resides on other websites or in other places and would be cited accordingly. However some information is hosted on the ipl2 site and citation guidelines are provided. (Additional assistance with citations is available from the CWU Writing Center and the Excellent OWL at Purdue University.)
And finally, a public library would not be complete without story hour. The children's stories that they have available will not take you an hour to read - but they do make a nice study break.
Note: if you find a resource through the Internet Public Library that we should highlight in one or more of these Research Guides please let me know. Thank you.
Interesting and sometimes educational websites are featured on this annotated, topical gateway of websites. Each website is recommended and annotated by a librarian working for the Librarians Internet Index as a quality resource. You can also quickly group resources by domain type, so it is easy to see which sites are commercial, from organizations, and from the government.
A searchable, browsable directory of over 6,300 Web resources for children and those who work with them. Grouped into fifteen major categories with many sub-categories, entries are briefly annotated and include the number of illustrations and reading levels.
"The leading Web site on learning disabilities for parents, teachers, and other professionals."
Free access to interactive lessons and tools for science instruction. All examples and lessons adhere to the 1996 National Science Education Standards for K-12.
Math Forum, now operating under Drexel University's School of Education, continues to be a premier Web site for mathematics educators in grades K-16, having added a great amount technologically savvy content recently. The most noteworthy addition is the digital library of mathematics software tools titled MathTools, funded partly by the National Science Foundation. MathTools offers teachers access to interactive technology tools, lessons, activities, and support materials. The site hosts discussion groups and activities such as Teacher2Teacher, a peer-mentored question-and-answer service for teachers and parents, all contribute to a supportive teaching environment.
OAIster is a catalog more than 25 million records of open access digital resource. The Catalog was built by harvesting information from open access collections around the world The digital resources in OAIster include items such as digitized books and articles, born-digital texts, audio files, images, and movies.
The OAIster Catalog is searchable by title, author/creator, subject, language, keyword and several other forms of metadata. Searching in the OAIster Catalog is by Boolean Search (And, Or, Not). Like playing chess the best way to become good at boolean searching is to do a lot of boolean searching. Here are the 'basic moves' for searching the OAIster Catalog:
Combining the search terms 'Cat' and 'Dog' (Boolean)
Cat and Dog
Cat or Dog
Cat not Dog
Note: 'and', 'or', & 'not' are in drop-down boxes to the left of the search boxes.
Plurals, truncation, and wildcards
Use + for plurals (s and es)
Use * for truncation
Use # for a wildcard character
Use ?N for up to N characters
Adjacent terms (proximity)
Cat w Dog (Cat is followed by Dog)
Cat wN Dog (Cat is followed by Dog with at most N terms between)
Cat n Dog (Cat is next to Dog, either order)
Cat nN Dog (Cat is within N terms of Dog, either order)
The available Limiters are Year, Document Type, and Language. A Basic Search and an Expert Search interface is also available. You can also create an account that will enable you to save searches.
NOTE: Sometimes OAIster may direct you to items that are access restricted. The Librarians in the ARC or at any of the service desks can help you with accessing information that is ‘access restricted’ and with any questions that you might have.
A premier Web site for health and physical education teachers, parents, and students. The goal is to provide the latest information about developmentally appropriate physical education programs for children and youth.
"Primarily designed for parents of children with learning differences (LD). Here are practical aids for parents to identify and manage their child's learning differences."
A portal to websites on various (indexed) topics in Special Education. Topics are on specific types of physical and learning disabilities and also on gifted and talented children. There is also a link to legal resources and inclusive education.
This website provides "a comprehensive model curriculum for teaching world history in middle and high schools." Features an overview of the integrative approach to world history, lesson plans arranged by "Big Eras," a glossary, and links to related websites. Some portions in development. A project of San Diego State University in cooperation with the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles.
COS Funding Opportunities has been replaced by COS PIVOT.
This database provides access to funding opportunities as well as scholar profiles, with the ability to add your own scholar profile and to view the profiles of various research organizations. PIVOT allows you to also prioritize and save your searches to receive weekly alerts.
You must register your own account and log in thereafter in order to use PIVOT. Registration and log in is in the upper righthand corner of screen. Previous CWU users of COS Funding Opportunities may log in with their existing username and password, as the accounts have been transferred over into PIVOT. For more information, please see: Pivot Video Tutorials.
Note: For some opportunities, sponsors accept only a limited number of proposals or applications from an institution, or require an institution to rank or prioritize applications before submission. If an opportunity is marked "Internal Coordination Required," please contact the Office of Graduate Studies and Research before applying.
"The speech accent archive is established to uniformly exhibit a large set of speech accents from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English all read the same English paragraph and are carefully recorded. The archive is constructed as a teaching tool and as a research tool. It is meant to be used by linguists as well as other people who simply wish to listen to and compare the accents of different English speakers."
= Restricted resource
= Some full text
= OpenURL enabled
= Video files
= Audio files