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Teaching: Principles and Practices

EDUC 222-04; Prof. F. Shapiro-Skröbe

Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

Fall 2008

Susan B. Kurzmann

skurzman@ramapo.edu

• Library Homepage
• Finding Books
• Reference Material
• Electronic Resources
• Preparing bibliographies
• Websites
• Interlibrary loan

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

    Provides access to the online catalog, databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

II. Finding Books at the Potter Library

Catalog: Use the online catalog to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles), government documents, and reserve itemsowned by the library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.

• Use the default Basic Search setting to find material by entering Keywords
  • For example: search for English and teaching to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords and to look for ideas for your project
  • The system will pull up many results in order of relevance. Look over the items that have five red bars, four green bars, and three blue bars: these are the most relevant for your search.
  • If you would like to search for a phrase of two or more words, enclose them in quotation marks, i.e., "secondary school"
    • This forces the system to look for that particular set of words in that specified order
    • You will get fewer, but more relevant, results
  • When you you find an appropriate title, click on the Subjects, etc. tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are addressed in that particular book/film/periodical
    • Click on any of the subject headings listed to get to more material on the same topic

  OR

• Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading

  For example:

  • English language--Study and teaching (Secondary)
  • Literature--Study and teaching (Secondary)
  • Mathematics--Study and teaching (Secondary)
  • Geography--Study and teaching (Secondary)
  • Functions--Study and teaching (Middle school)
  • Content area reading
    • May subdivide: Content area reading--United States
  • Reading (Secondary)--United States
  • Language arts--Correlation with content subjects
  • Language arts (Secondary)--United States

   

OR

• Go to Advanced Search
  • The Boolean search terms are built in for your use
    • AND: you are commanding the system to search for material that addresses both terms you've entered
    • OR: you are commanding the system to search for material on either of the search terms you have entered
    • NOT: you are commanding the system to search for material on the first term you have entered excluding any material on the second term you have entered
  • The catalog system will provide more focused results

   

  TIPS

• Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
• If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
• Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Reference Material

• The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
• Some useful reference titles for your projects:

Education Index *Print coverage through 1996	Last row of reference collection; shelved alphabetically
Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts	Ref LB1576.H234 2003

IV. Electronic Resources

     Some useful Databases for your projects: