University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
There are three types of education books in Nash Library:
1. Books about education--The L section of the third floor of Nash Library
2. Curriculum materials--The east rows of shelves in Nash 301
3. Children's books--The west rows of shelves in Nash 306; these are further divided into:
Fiction--organized by age group and then alphabetically by author
Nonfiction--organized by dewey decimal system
This page discusses how to find #3. For #1 and #2, see the Curricula and Books on Teaching tab.
There are different ways you can find children's books in the catalog. The basic Library Catalog search is a keyword search--you simply type your search terms into the box, and the catalog retrieves all the items that have your search terms in their catalog records. An easy way to limit your search to children's books in Nash Library is to enter your keywords in the search boxes, select the shelving location tab, and check the box next to Education Room Section J. Then run your search.
Another way to search is by audience level. Enter your search terms and in the bottom right corner, under the Audience heading, select the audience level you want from the dropdown menu.
Another way to search is by subject, which can help you find children's books about a specific topic. Each item in the Library Catalog has one or more subject terms (headings) assigned to it. When you search by subject, you retrieve only the items that have the subject for which you searched. To search by subject in the Library Catalog, in the dropdown list under "Search for," select "Subject." You can limit your search by location or audience level to make sure it retrieves only children's books; otherwise, the search will include all the academic books in Nash Library.
Here is a short list of some subjects you can use to find children's books (though there are many more):
Animals
Brothers and sisters
Cats
Dogs
Family life
Folklore
Friendship
Frontier and pioneer life
Indians of North America
Railroads
To find subject headings for another topic, first use keyword searching to find some books on the topic in which you are interested. Then look at their records and see what subject terms they have. You can use the subject links in the catalog records to retrieve all the items with the same subject. This linking scheme has some quirks, so if it seems like it is returning far too many (or too few) items, try using the Library Catalog (aka Advanced Search) screen and a Subject or Subject Phrase search with your terms.
These databases allow you to discover children's books on various topics. They can be useful if you need to find a book for a specific age group about a specific subject. The first three include the full text (but not pictures) of the books; the fourth merely includes a description of each.
The children's nonfiction books are organized according to the Dewey decimal system:
000 Generalities
100 Philosophy & psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Natural sciences & mathematics
600 Technology (Applied sciences)
700 The arts
800 Literature & rhetoric
900 Geography & history
This system is commonly used by school and public libraries for nonfiction books.
The children's fiction books are organized by age group into three categories:
E Elementary
J Juvenile
YA Young Adult
Within each category, they are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author.
The two shelves on the far left of the fiction section are for award-winning books. They are arranged with E first, then, J, then YA. The rest of the fiction shelves are the "regular" children's books. They too are arranged from E to J to YA.
