Award-Winning Children's Literature
by Claire Clemens, Education Librarian

Carrier Library has more Children’s Literature resources now than ever before.  Over the past year the Juvenile Collection has grown by almost 600 books.  The new titles include several large sets:  Celebrate the 50 States, Modern World Nations (34 volumes), Your Government:  How It Works (28 volumes) and the colorful DK Eyewitness Series (100 volumes).  Award-winning titles from major book lists, such as the Randolph Caldecott Medal winner and honor books are automatically ordered each year.  With the emphasis in schools on the Virginia Standards of Learning, the Library has purchased many K-12 print materials to support specific needs of pre-service teachers.  Many of these materials were endorsed by teacher organizations such as the Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts, Notable Social Studies Books for Young People, and Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12.

In recognition of the significance of the Caldecott Medal to the field of children’s picture books, Carrier Library has launched a project to make these award-winning books more visible, and their catalog records more searchable.  Carrier Library’s Caldecott collection is now 97 percent complete, containing 264 (many in multiple copies) of the 273 medal-winning titles dating from the award’s origin in 1938 to the present.  Thanks to the diligent work of our technical services team, these books are now physically marked with both the appropriate gold or silver seal, and a special label on the binding.  The LEO record is amended to include information on grade level, expanded subject headings, and summary, and book award notes.  As each book is processed, the word “Caldecott” is added to the end of its call number to indicate that the book is now shelved in a special Caldecott section of the Juvenile Collection.

 
2003 Caldecott Medal Winner

If you need to find a review of a Caldecott winner, or any other children’s book, JMU Libraries now has a new research database that provides expanded electronic access to information in the field of reading education:  

The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD) contains an extensive array of information about children's books, video and audio recordings, film strips, and other children-focused media.  The CLCD presently holds more than 900,000 records with all of the official cataloging data, subject terms, and annotations.  In addition, the database contains more than 130,000 critical reviews of thousands of children's books with more than 1,500 new reviews added to the database monthly.  Other features include author biographies, reading measurement programs, and awards, honors, prizes, best book and state reading lists, including the Virginia State Young Readers' Award.  The database may also be searched by genre, language, and age.

Students and faculty involved in the professional teacher preparation programs will now have enhanced research opportunities, thanks to these new resources and updates.  In addition, any member of the JMU community is welcome to check out books from the Juvenile Collection, located in the basement of Carrier Library.