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Ekstrom Library

EDTP 245: Children's Literature: Author & Literature Resources

A guide to library and university resources relevant this course

Assignments like the Author Study and Curated Children's Literature Collection: Hallmark Assessment Task may require research resources, like databases, citation management, and more. 

Author Study:

Select and examine at least three texts written by your chosen authors.

Find at least one interview with your author where they describe their writer's craft.

Evaluate the significance of your author.

Describe your reaction.

Find and incorporate images. 

Curated Literature Collection: Hallmark Assessment

Select a topic of importance to kids in school classrooms and pick 10 texts from at least 3 genres that describe or relate to the topic. Books should be diverse and critically evaluated for their literary and artistic merit.

Let's begin with this brainstorming activity.

Do It Yourself Research Tutorials

University Libraries has developed a series of quick, do-it-yourself tutorials designed to guide researchers through every stage of the research process, from starting an assignment to searching databases, from finding sources to writing the paper itself. Graduate students and faculty may also be interested in the exploring more advanced research tutorials on the Productive Researcher site.

Recommended Databases for Books & Authors

Matt de la Pena's author page from Contemporary Authors database

Contemporary Authors

Provides biographical details on thousands of modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Screenshot

Dictionary of Literary Biography

Signed essays written by scholars provide essential context for understanding the careers and writings of more than 12,000 authors from all time periods and from all parts of the world.

Screenshot of book cover from ebook central

eBook Central

Ebook Central provides authoritative, full-text e-books in a wide range of subject areas.

Cover of article

JSTOR

Full-text journal articles relating to African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, botany, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology and statistics. 1600s - present.

Literature Online screenshot

Literature Online (LION)

Combines the texts of over 355,000 literary works with key criticism and reference resources. 1603 - present.

Novelist Screenshot

Novelist

A comprehensive readers' advisory solution for fiction lovers. With an intuitive interface and extensive proprietary content, NoveList answers the question: What should I read next?

Project Muse screenshot

Project MUSE

Multi-disciplinary database of articles, with some full-text coverage. Areas covered include area and ethnic Studies; art and architecture; creative writing; education; history; language and linguistics; literature; studies by time period; women’s studies, gender, sexuality, and more. 1955 - present.

US Newstream screenshot

US Newsstream

Current news service, including Courier - Journal (Louisville, Ky.), New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and more.

Book cover photo for Something Bad Happened

eBook K-8 Collection

This collection offers full text titles with unlimited access designed specifically to support a quality learning experience for K-8 students across all academic subjects from History, to Language and Literature, to Science & Technology.

Typical Citation Styles

The APA (American Psychological Association) citation style is the most typical citation format for Education-related scholarship. However, depending on the professor and/or the publication's submission policy, other citations may be required. The following provides style guide information on the three popular citation formats. Always confirm the required/preferred citation format for a research paper, project, or submission with your professor and/or publication.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers comprehensive guides to most citations and are linked below. UofL's Writing Center is available to provide citation assistance (and any other writing-related support you may need). Lastly, most of the Citation Management Tools referenced on this page are able to generate citations for you (though you should always double-check them).

APA (American Psychological Association)
MLA (Modern Language Association)
The Chicago Manual of Style

Why Use a Citation Management Tool?

You put a lot of effort into gathering the materials for your paper - make it easy to find and cite them when it's time to write. Citation management software helps you to

  • make sure you get all the citation information you need on a particular source,
  • locate the information you've collected, 
  • easily output your citations in the style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) required,
  • inject citations into your paper, and
  • generate your bibliography

Guides on Citation Management Tools