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!