Search KidzLit Online

Now you can search KidzLit Online and affiliated websites via "Google Search Engine on the fly," a custom search engine for blogs, directories, and web pages available at

http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

11. RSS Feeds

1. Amazon.com: Hot New Releases>Books>Children's Books>Literature
This feed from Amazon provides hourly updates for the latest releases in children's literature. For librarians, this is a convenient way to learn about the vast array of children's literature being published each day.

2. Helium.com: Home>Arts & Humanities>Literature> Children's Literature
From Helium.com, this feed provides articles and discussions on various topics relating to children's literature. Book reviews are also available. Many participants are librarians or teachers. This is a nice way to stay connected with a group that's interested in children's literature.

3. Fusenumber8.blogspot.com
The blogger for this site provides the following description, "Children's literature is not for the weak. It's a ruthless, cutthroat business with lots of gnashes of the teeth. Children's librarianship, in contrast, is a sweet, sweet ride. I'm just gonna include links and tips to things I find interesting, while also including a review of a children's book each day."
This feed provides links to the blog's podcasts which focus on various aspects of librarianship and topics related to children's literature. For example, the podcast titled, "Talking TOONs and Giver Woes," includes three book talks and an interview with Art Spiegelman of TOON books. This is another great way to stay connected with other's in the field.

These feeds were located by searching for "children's literature" at Google.com.

10. DialogWeb

Search purpose: To locate information that will provide ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library. OR provide ideas for programs and events for children and young adults, with the intention of increasing their library attendance. OR with the intention of gathering ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library.

Query: Programs for children and young adults in the public library

Specific Facet First: DIALOG

(S1) library services (12355 hits)

Results list too large, additional facets required.

(S2) child (106587 hits)
(S3) teen (2194 hits)
(S4) young adult (0 hits)
(S5) child OR teen OR young adult (107889 hits)
(S6) S1 AND S5 (300 hits)
(S7) S6 AND py>2003 (33 hits)

Hit: Looks like teen spirit: libraries for youth are changing—thanks to teen input, Kimberly Bolan

Accessing ERIC through DialogWeb was a productive way to find articles relating to my query. By combining searches and applying limiters I ended up with a manageable set of applicable articles.

9. Academic Search Complete Database

Search purpose: To locate information that will provide ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library. OR provide ideas for programs and events for children and young adults, with the intention of increasing their library attendance. OR with the intention of gathering ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library.

Query: Programs for children and young adults in the public library

Citation Pearl Growing: Academic Search Complete

Article: Teens Are from Mars; To Best Serve Youth, Librarians Must Understand Them Developmentally, Jami Jones

(S1) teens are from mars AND jones (1 hit)

Subject Terms:
Libraries
Teenagers
Web sites
Adolescence
Librarians

(S2) (teenager* OR adolescen*) AND librari* (696 hits)

Narrow: Public Libraries (81 hits)

Hit: Types of Youth Participation Programs in Public Libraries: An Annotated Webliography, Susan Asis

Academic Search Complete was a good database to use for this search. I began with an article retrieved from another search. I located this article on the database. Academic Search Complete provides subject terms with each hit. Selecting a few of these terms and performing a truncated search led to a manageable set of results with several relevant articles.

8. ERIC/ Ebscohost Database

Search purpose: To locate information that will provide ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library. OR provide ideas for programs and events for children and young adults, with the intention of increasing their library attendance. OR with the intention of gathering ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library.

Query: Programs for children and young adults in the public library

Successive Fractions Search: ERIC/ Ebscohost

(S1) program* OR activit* OR event* Or club* OR group* (635,312 hits)

(S2) S1 AND child* OR kid* OR boy* OR girl* OR young adult* OR teen* OR adolescent* (156,809 hits)

(S3) S1 AND S2 AND library OR public library (4488 hits)

Limit: 2002-2008 (470 hits)

Narrow: Library Services (112 hits)

Hit: Teen programs with punch: a month by month guide, Valerie A. Ott

This search came up with a lot of hits. Adding on facets using the successive fractions approach helped to narrow the results and produce a relevant set of hits. In the end, I had to apply limiters and narrow the results to get a manageable set. There were several viable articles related to my query in the final set.

7. Library Lit Database

Search purpose: To locate information that will provide ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library. OR provide ideas for programs and events for children and young adults, with the intention of increasing their library attendance. OR with the intention of gathering ideas for ways to attract children and young adults to the public library.

Query: Programs for children and young adults in the public library

Building Block Search: Library Lit

(S1) program* OR activit* OR event* Or club* OR group* (30,877 hits) school library workshop, ideas for activities—interesting “suggested subjects” on the side.

(S2) child* OR kid* OR boy* OR girl* (22,368 hits) children’s literature/ children’s reading.

(S3) young adult* OR teen* OR adolescent* (6250 hits) YA literature/ library services/ book lists

(S4) S1 AND S2 AND S3 (296 hits)

Limit: 2002-2008 (117 hits)

Hit: Supporting children and teens after school: a library approach, Kay Cassell and James Walther

Each search using the building block approach resulted in large sets of hits. When the three searches were combined, the results were better, but still needed some modification. By applying limiters, a manageable set was created. This set included a variety of useful articles related to my query.

6. Multimedia

www.jsworldwide.com/ images/home/zka_home_art.jpg

Jon Scieszka, America's first Children's Laureate

See Jon in action at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4688782746359111188&q=readingrockets+interviews
Here he discusses a variety of topics, including but not limited to
-His career as a teacher
-Ways to motivate students and readers
-His books
-Illustrator Lane Smith
-Guys Read literacy program

Podcasts and videos from Jon Scieszka and other popular children's authors and illustrators can be found at http://www.readingrockets.org
This is a fabulous site for educators, school media specialists, and youth services librarians. Check it out!

5. Related Website

Digital Librarian

http://www.digital-librarian.com/childlit.html

An absolutely incredible website, Digital Librarian provides hundreds of links in multiple languages to a variety of children's literature resources on the Internet. The links are organized alphabetically and include a wide range of sites related to children's literature. Resources include:
-Online stories, books, and illustrations
-Encyclopedias
-Author and illustrator pages
-Book reviews
-Book lists
-Awards
-Libraries
-Discussion groups
-Literacy support groups
-Organizations
-Publishers
-Book dealers
-Web casts
-Research sites
-Journals
-Databases
The site is managed by Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in New York. As a future Youth Services Librarian or School Media Specialist, I am certain I will use this valuable resource for locating information about children's literature. I found this site using Google and searching for children's literature AND public library. If you are interested in children's literature, you will definitely want to bookmark this site!

4. Tag Cloud

This tag cloud is associated with the LibraryThing group "YA Fans in Education." I found it with a search for "children's literature" at LibraryThing. The group's description is given below.

Description: Teach students who read Young Adult (YA) literature? Work in a library serving YA? If you are in a position to teach or present to young people and love to read the same YA books they do, this group is for you!

Tag cloud:

www.librarything.com/tagcloud.php?view=mthibault

anthropology Arthurian legend Asian American autobiography boarding school bounty hunter Britain chicago civic cliques dogs eating disorders epic exile family fantastic fiction fantasy fundamentalism gaming guilded age hawaii healing hero history horror immigration justice leadership leprosy love love story magic Mormon murder New Jersey nonconformity olmstead politics race revolutionary war sacrifice science fiction series shamanism slavery spirituality teen time travel Vampires war werewolves witches Wizard of Oz world's fair YA young adult Young Adult novel">anthropology Arthurian legend Asian American autobiography boarding school bounty hunter Britain chicago civic cliques dogs eating disorders epic exile family fantastic fiction fantasy fundamentalism gaming guilded age hawaii healing hero history horror immigration justice leadership leprosy love love story magic Mormon murder New Jersey nonconformity olmstead politics race revolutionary war sacrifice science fiction series shamanism slavery spirituality teen time travel Vampires war werewolves witches Wizard of Oz world's fair YA young adult Young Adult novel

LibraryThing Link:
http://www.librarything.com/groups/yafansineducation

3. Podcast

I was able to find a wide and  varied selection of podcasts that focus on children's literature by searching "children's literature 2008" at http://podcasts.yahoo.com.  One of particular interest, "Just One More Book," can be found at justonemorebook.com.  Described as "a podcast about the children's books we love and why we love them," Just One More Book features two Canadian children's literature enthusiasts, Andrea and Mark.   Three times each week the two meet at a local coffee shop to discuss different children's book.  These conversations are recorded and posted as podcasts.  The podcasts can be accessed at the site in a number of ways:  by author, illustrator, category or theme, and through archives which are organized by month and date back to July 2006.  Below is a description from the site.

"Episodes range in length from 5 to 30 minutes and can be played directly from our page or downloaded to a portable MP3 player for listening on the go.  Each episode features and informal discussion of one of our favorite children's books, a discussion on book theme, an interview with an author or illustrator, or a listener submitted review.  Through this podcast and its website, we are building a lively interactive community linking children's book authors, illustrators, aficionados, parents, children, librarians, and publishers."

Just One More Book has been featured in School Library Journal and is included on the ALA's website as a great website for kids.  

Check it out for yourself at

http://www.justonemorebook.com/

Enjoy!

2. Related Blog

I found this blog with a quick GoogleBlog search of children's literature in the public library.  The blog uses labels to make navigating posts easy.  In addition, there are lots of great links to other sites such as libraries, children's and YA literature blogs, literacy-related sites, and authors on the web.  The blogger for Kiddosphere is Jennifer Schultz, a youth services librarian at the Warrenton branch of the Fauquier Public Library system in Virginia.  Here's a clip from her post on cat-themed books for story time.

January 23, 2008

Hello Kitty

It's so disgustingly simple to create a cats storytime that I'm almost ashamed of myself.  There's such a huge assortment of cat-themed picture books that I had difficulty choosing which books to include in my storytime.  The books that were not read were placed on display (if you don't already do so, creating a temporary display in your program room/ storytime area is an easy way to increase circulation, extend your storytime theme, and give parents and children something to do while they are waiting for the storytime to begin).  While it's always fun to showcase the latest and greatest in your collection, including oldies-but-goodies is a good way to reconnect parents/ grandparents/ childcare providers with childhood favorites or to introduce "neglected" picture books.

You can check out this blog for yourself at:

TheKiddosphere@Fauquier-http://kiddosphere.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Kidzlit Online

Kidzlit Online is a blog designed to meet a course requirement for LS 5013: Information Storage and Retrieval. This course is part of the Master's of Library Science degree program through Texas Woman's University. The focus of this blog is literature for children and young adults in the public library.  If children's literature is your passion, you are visiting the right blog.  Welcome!