Teacher Reference Center

The Library has recently acquired access to the database 'Teacher Reference Center' from Ebsco.

Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for 280 periodicals. In addition, 96% of journals indexed in the database are peer-reviewed. Topics include: Assessment, Best Practices, Continuing Education, Current Pedagogical Research, Curriculum Development, Elementary Education, Higher Education, Instructional Media, Language Arts, Literacy Standards, School Administration, Science & Mathematics, and Teacher Education.

It's available here or via our subject guides.

Remember that you can cross search multiple databases on the Ebsco platform by selecting the 'choose databases' option.

Any problems, please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.

IOE Digital Education Research Archive is launched

The Institute of Education (IOE) has recently launched the Digital Education Research Archive (DERA)

DERA is a digital archive of documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education. The IOE Library staff have developed this database to ensure that web content is preserved and remains freely available. It is a fully searchable digital archive and already there are approximately 1000 full text documents available. This includes BECTA‘s digital publication archive which is now permanently preserved and available for all.

Please take a look at this excellent resource online here

UK - RED (Reading Experience Database)

The Open University (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council) recently launched the open access database UK RED (Reading Experience Database) which captures the reading habits from 1450-1945.

UK Red is a great resource for exploring the history of reading in Britain and is fully searchable by keyword with browse lists of readers and authors. There are online tutorials to help you explore the database in depth and a section for adding contributions.

Crowdsourcing and archives

I listened to a fascinating talk last week by an academic called Stuart Lee who's taken a crowdsourcing approach to building an archive of Great War (incl poetry) materials.  The audio file is available from Oxford Brookes University's website:  http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/publishing/podcast/crowd-sourcing-stuart_lee/.  But you can also download it from iTunes.  

The project originated from a much smaller JISC-funded initiative but the Archive now contains over 6,500 items contributed by the general public, 150 audio and movie clips and other materials like timelines.  So it can fit with the curricula for English and History lessons at all levels.  It is all accessible from their fantastic website: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/.  They have extensive "permitted use" rights for teachers and students.

Vera Brittain in V. A. D. uniform

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive has a section on Vera Brittain (mother of Shirley Williams).  She was great friends with Winifred Holtby (author of South Riding which is currently being serialized on the BBC) and her best-loved books, Testament of Friendship, records their campaigning (for peace and equal rights for women).  A truly inspirational woman.

Tell us what else you think we should buy

As you will see from the previous post, we have recently received a lot of extra money to spend on the collection.  Whilst our priority is to buy from unit reading lists, we are always pleased to receive recommendations from you for books you think we should purchase to broaden the collection.  All you need to do is complete this form and we will do the rest.

New books

The Library was recently given an extra 100k to spend on books and ebooks. The Librarians supporting the Faculty of Education, Sport and Tourism have been busy buying stock recommended on reading lists and suggested by staff and students. Click here to access the list of material ordered.

If you have any recommendations please let us know here.

Web Literacy amongst Secondary pupils

Teachers.TV have produced an excellent 14 minute programme about the critical importance for teachers to provide guidance to their pupils when using the Internet for research.

The film focuses on a group of Year 9 pupils in Leeds who are researching three topics: Martin Luther King; the holocaust; and, Victorian robots.  The exercise reveals that they struggle to spot problems with validity, reliability or authority.  (And don't get me started on plagiarism!)

It brings up lots of issues which clearly impact subjects beyond ICT lessons.