EDUCATION
sources in the BSC Library
Spring 2005

Dictionaries and Handbooks

Greenwood Dictionary of Education. 2003.
Ref. LB 15 .G68 2003
Over 2600 terms related to educational research, practice, and theory.

Facts on File Dictionary of Education. 1988.
Ref. LB 15 .S43 1988
Contains short explanations of words, phrases, processes, names, laws, and court cases in the field of education.

A Critical Dictionary of Education Concepts. 1986.
Ref. LB 15 .B29 1986
This book is almost a mini-encyclopedia, with commentary and discussion of words, ideas and issues in education.
 
Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors.  2001.
Ref. LB 15 .E3 2001 and online at the ERIC web site.
A list of over 10,000 educational terms used to index education articles and reports, with explanatory “scope notes” for many of them.

Explore Education Dictionary & Encyclopedia.  2004.
This project links the reader to brief definitions of educational terms, mainly derived from Wikipedia.
http://www.explore-education.com  

Education Week’s Glossary.  2005.
http://www.edweek.org/rc/glossary/a.html
Useful definitions of educational words and phrases (Note: free registration required).

Encyclopedias

The Encyclopedia of Education (2nd ed.). 2003.
Ref. LB 15 .E47 2003 (8 vols.)
An excellent source for gaining a basic understanding of over 850 educational topics and issues, laid out in concise, well-written articles.   

Encyclopedia of Educational Research. 1992 (2002 edition - cancelled by the publisher!)
Ref. LB .E48 1992 (4 vols.)
Provides carefully researched articles on educational topics by subject specialists, with long bibliographies.

The International Encyclopedia of Education: research and studies. 1994.
Ref. LB 15 .I569 1994 (12 vols.)
Contains scholarly descriptions of the "state of knowledge" in different areas of research by scholars from various parts of the world. 

Encyclopedia of American Education. 2001.
Ref. LB17 .U54 2001 (3 vols.)
Intended as an easy-to-use reference for students of education, teachers, and others in the educational community, this encyclopedia consists of 2,500 brief entries on virtually every broad area of education.

The International Encyclopedia of Teaching and Teacher Education. 1987.
Ref. LB 17 .I56 1987
Contains fairly lengthy articles about key concepts in the areas of teaching and teacher education, with excellent bibliographies.

Concise Encyclopedia of Special Education. 2002.
Ref. LC4007 .E53 2002
Concise entries on issues of concern to special education professionals as well as parents of exceptional children.

Philosophy of Education: An Encyclopedia. 1996.
Ref. LB17 .P485 1996
This unique work covers philosophical points of view that have influenced educational thinking, from ancient Greece to modern times. Ideas and thinkers from a variety of fields are included.

International Encyclopedia of National Systems of Education. 2nd ed. 1995.
Ref. LB 43 .I584 1995
This one-volume encyclopedia gives overviews of 152 systems of education and includes sections for each on background, politics and goals, administrative structure, finance, personnel, curriculum development and teaching methodology, certification, assessment, reforms, and problems.

Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education. 1992.
Ref. LB 1139.25 .E53 1992
This is an informational and ethical work on the field of early childhood education. Entries are arranged alphabetically within chapters on the history & philosophy of the field; socio-cultural, political & economic context; perspectives on children; curricula & programs; and perspectives on educators.  

Books

The library has a good collection of books in the field of education, selected by faculty members over the years. You can access this collection by looking in I-Link, our online catalog, accessible from the Library homepage. You can search by words or phrases as well as by author, title or subject. Circulating books are located on the second floor of the Library.  Holdings from the Technology Lab in Harbert are also listed in the catalog.

Government Publications

Birmingham-Southern College is a partial depository for government documents. We receive a variety of publications from the U.S. Department of Education, including many ERIC documents. Access to government documents is through the GPO index, accessible from the Library's Indexes & Databases web page. Most government documents received since 1994, are also listed in I-Link; many are available online. If you locate a reference to a government document you would like, you can ask a librarian to see if it is available in our library.

The Department of Education also has an excellent website, located at http://www.ed.gov. The website is searchable and includes the full text of numerous research reports and statistical publications, current news in the field of education, and other useful information. An A-Z subject listing of topics is also available at this site.

Indexes and Databases

Most of the sources listed below are online, and are accessible from the Library's Indexes & Databases web page.

ERIC Database (1966 - present)
The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a government-sponsored digital library of education-related resources. Its ERIC database contains more than a million bibliographic records of documents (papers, conference proceedings, literature reviews, and curriculum materials) as well as articles from over 1,000 education-related journals. As of October 1, 2004, the full text of over 100,000 ERIC documents are available for free in ERIC.  At the Educator's Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org/) , you can access not only the ERIC database, but also a collection of lesson plans, a variety of online resources for educators, and a database of FAQs.

Education Full Text. Online 1983 - present; Print 1929-present
Social Sciences Full Text. Online 1983 - present; Print 1907 - present (called Social Sciences Index from 1974 -, Social Sciences and Humanities Index 1965-1974, and International Index 1907-1965)
These 2 indexes, published by the H.W. Wilson company, are similar in format but cover different subject areas (education in one case and social sciences in the other). Around 500 journals in the areas of education and another 500 in the social sciences are covered in these indexes. When you search by subject, author, or keyword, you will find references to relevant articles in scholarly journals. Full-text is available for many articles from 1995 to the present.

Education Literature, 1907-1932. 1979.
Ref. Z 5811 .E415 (25 vols.)
This index reproduces the U.S. Office of Education library's index to printed material in education from 1907 to 1932, providing important access to information written during that time.

Alabama Virtual Library - Education Resources
The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is an important initiative to make full-text online information available to students and other citizens of Alabama. A list of their Education resources is available at http://www.avl.lib.al.us/databases/education.html. Among the resources of particular interest to education students is EbscoHost’s Professional Development Collection (access to 250 full text journals, designed for professional educators). A number of encyclopedias, almanacs, and databases and online resources for schoolchildren of all ages are also available through the AVL.

Infotrac's Expanded Academic Index, EBSCOHost's Academic Search Elite, Lexis Nexis Academic, and ProQuest's Research Library Complete are among the general periodicals indexes which are available from the Library's Indexes & Databases page. Each cover some education journals, as well as general interest publications, and provide access to articles in full text.

Education Journals

In addition to the many full-text journal articles included in the indexes & databases described above, the library subscribes to over 70 journals in the field of education. These journals have been chosen by the faculty in the Education Department.  To see if an article is available in print or microfilm format in the Library, or if it's available full-text in a library database, please consult Periodicals @ BSC on the Library home page.  Remember that the BSC Library offers interlibrary loan service for articles and books not available locally - simply fill out an interlibrary loan request form.

Internet Sites

In addition to the websites mentioned above, there are many valuable resources on the web for students of education.

Guides to education resources on the Web include
the WWW Education Virtual Library (http://www.csu.edu.au/education/library.html),
Education World (http://db.educationworld.com/perl/browse), and
Electronic Journals in Education (http://aera-cr.ed.asu.edu/links.html)

Information for educators may be found at such sites as
Educator's Reference Desk (http://www.eduref.org/)
Education World (http://www.education-world.com/),
Discovery School (http://school.discovery.com/),
MarcoPolo Internet Content for the Classroom (http://www.marcopolo-education.org/), and
The Gateway to Educational Materials (http://www.thegateway.org/ ).
Blue Web’n (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn).

To search the Web for other sites of interest, try some of the web search engines or directories located at http://www.bsc.edu/bsclibrary/tools/virtref.htm#Search.

A totally different topic!

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