Collections

The Frances F. Povsic collection has approximately 55,000 items and is cataloged using the Dewey Decimal System. Read the complete CRC Collection Development Policy for more details about how materials are identified for this collection. Below is a brief description of the different collections within the CRC.

Print & Physical Collection

Curriculum

The Curriculum section of the CRC includes materials for lesson planning purposes. There are textbooks published by a variety of publishers representing all content areas and grade levels. These often come with the student edition of the textbook as well as the companion teacher edition. Additional titles in this collection are written for teachers and provide strategies and ideas for teaching children concepts and addressing different student needs. There are approximately 6,000 titles in this part of the collection.

Juvenile Literature

The juvenile literature collection consists of fiction and non-fiction written for children and young adults. Areas of strength include award winning fiction and nonfiction, poetry, fairy tales and folklore, graphic novels and biographies. The collection is divided into three distinct areas:

There are approximately 30,000 titles in this part of the collection.

New Books

So that pre-service teachers have access to the latest titles, the New Books area is a designated area for easy browsing. To see an updated list our the latest purchase, consider subscribing to the New Books RSS feed. This part of the collection fluctuates but at any given time, there are approximately 1200 titles in this part of the collection.

Open Reference

This section contains reference tools to help students, faculty, librarians and other patrons find thematic educational materials through directories, bibliographies, and encyclopedias. There are approximately 165 titles in this part of the collection.

Periodicals

This part of the collection contains magazines primarily for children. These provide a rich source of lesson planning ideas with age appropriate activities across several content areas. There are approximately 30 children’s periodicals located in the CRC with more available online through library subscription databases.

Reserves  

Professors can elect to put materials on short term loan as part of their class assignments. These can be CRC materials or their personal items. We also purchase OAE study guides and put them on short term loan. This collection is only accessible during the CRC hours.

Teaching Aids

The teaching aid collection contains educational material such as manipulatives, kits, and interactive sets. Examples of such materials include flash cards, big books, puppets, games, models, globes, maps, reading rods, etc. Teaching aids are arranged by call number and then by manufacturer within a designated call number. Be sure to browse all of the shelves in any given call number. Use the signage on the end panels of the shelving units to identify content areas or use the catalog with this search strategy: “curr ta” and [insert your key word]. For example, “curr ta” and addition.  There are approximately 2,600 teaching aids in this part of the collection. This collection is only accessible during the CRC hours.

The Matthew Hungling Disney Collection

In 2005, Matthew Hungling, long-time employee of University Libraries, donated approximately 700 titles to the CRC. He continues to generously contribute to this collection and to other areas of the library as well. This collection includes the Disney retellings of classic fairy tales and folklore, representative pieces from the Disney and Pixar major motion pictures, and Disney books that teach children educational concepts. There are approximately 700 items in this part of the collection.

Navigating the Collection

Online Collection

The following online library subscription databases also support the interests of those who use the Curriculum Resource Center:

Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD)

Over 300,000 children's book reviews and related information including best books lists, annually-updated state reading lists, teaching tools, and reading measurement programs. This is a great resource to use to identify titles by author, illustrator, reading level, content area, grade level, genre, publisher and more.

Teaching Books

TeachingBooks.net is a database designed to add a multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children's and young adult books. This is an excellent resource for lesson planning and creating excitement around children’s and young adult literature. Need ideas on how to incorporate award winning literature into the classroom? This resource offers discussion questions, lesson plans, interviews with authors and illustrators and much more.