The Curriculum Center

Introduction

The Curriculum Center is housed on the first floor of Bierce Library. It is a collection of educational materials used primarily by students in the College of Education for course-related work and in preparation for practice teaching. Some of the materials are also useful in speech-making and other presentations.

Article Databases

To use these article databases from off-campus you will need to use UA VPN or OhioLINK Remote Authentication.

EBSCO Animals - EBSCO Animals (for elementary school students) provides thousands of easy-to-read entries about mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. Each entry begins with a simple category breakdown of the animal including Kingdom, Class, Order, Genus & Species, and Geographical Locale as well as a detailed description. Many entries include colorful images.
Encyclopaedia Britannica School Edition - Access to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Student Encyclopedia, and Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia.
MAS Ultra: School Edition (for high school students) - MAS Ultra: School Edition (for high school students) provides full text from over 515 periodicals covering general reference, health, science, and other areas. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 581 magazines. Full text is also available for many biographies and primary source documents, pamphlets, reference books (including the Columbia Encyclopedia, the CIA World Fact Book and World Almanac & Book of Facts), and an Image Collection of 91,000 photos, maps & flags.
Middle Search Plus (for middle school students) - Middle Search Plus (for middle school students) provides full text from over 140 popular middle school magazines. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for over 170 magazines. Full text is also available for biographies, historical essays and student pamphlets. Additionally, Middle Search Plus contains primary source documents including Essential Documents in American History, reference books including the Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia and American Heritage® Dictionary, 4th Edition from Houghton Mifflin, the Encyclopedia of Animals and an Image Collection.
Primary Search (for elementary school students) - Primary Search (for elementary school students) provides full text from 57 children’s magazines appropriate for elementary schools and children’s reading rooms. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for over 80 magazines. Other full text sources include: The World Almanac of the U.S.A. and The World Almanac for Kids; The Encyclopedia of Animals; Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia; and full text for over 100 pamphlets.
Searchasaurus (for elementary and middle school students) - Searchasaurus (for elementary and middle school students) is a colorful, easy-to-use search interface for elementary and middle school students. Searchasaurus provides access to magazine articles, pictures, encyclopedias, and a dictionary through an animated interface with a dinosaur theme that encourages students to enhance and develop basic search methodologies. Lexile limiters allow searchers to specify the reading level of materials retrieved.

The Collection

The curriculum collection contains five basic types of resources:

Juvenile Literature

This collection of fiction and non-fiction books is representative of the books you would expect to find in an elementary or secondary school library. The juvenile literature collection is fully cataloged in the UA Libraries Catalog.

In this collection, all call numbers on the books start with "j" or "y". But, this "j" or "y" is not displayed in the online catalog. Non-fiction books begin with: j [or y]

Picture books begin with: jE
Fiction books begin with: jF
Biographies begin with: jB

A sample call number for a novel in this collection looks like this: jF B541 L . In the online catalog it is displayed without the "j" as: F B541L. New picture books (jE) and fiction books (jF) are now labeled "Fiction" and followed by letters and numbers for an alphabetical arrangement by author. All are shelved together in the jF section in one alphabet by author.

A sample call number for a non-fiction book in this collection looks like this: j 333.72 M593s. In the online catalog it is displayed without the "j" as: 333.72 M593s.

Juvenile Literature books can be checked out of the library for three weeks.

Picture File

The Curriculum Center picture file is comprised of over 20,000 mounted pictures. They are arranged alphabetically by subject in the filing cabinets with pink labels.

A limit of 25 pictures per person may circulate at one time.

Pamphlet (or Unit) File

Units include pamphlets, posters, charts and booklets used to enrich lessons. They are arranged alphabetically by subject in the filing cabinets with the yellow labels. There are over 2,500 items in the unit files.

A limit of 25 units per person may circulate at one time.

Textbooks and Teacher Resources

The Curriculum Center contains textbooks for all grades and subjects. All the textbooks are fully cataloged in the Online catalog.

Textbooks are on the shelves by call numbers according to the Dewey Decimal Classification. They are arranged first by LEVELS. Within the LEVELS they are arranged by SUBJECTS. Books are arranged in each level and subject by publisher.

For example, to locate an elementary arithmetic textbook, first locate the Elementary level books. Within the Elementary section, proceed numerically to the mathematics subject area. A sample call number looks like this:

Call Number Cur.Cent. 372.24 5105 H351h 2t	Line	Explanation
	1. Cur.Cent.	1. LOCATION indicator
	2. 372.24	2. LEVEL indicator. There are six levels: All (370.7), Special (371.9), Early (372.21), Elementary (372.24), Secondary (373.07), and Adult (374.07). These level indicators are always found in the second position of the call number.
	3. 5105	3. Combined number. The first three digits indicate the subject category. For example, Mathematics , is 510. A classification system for subjects is affixed to the stack end panels in the Curriculum Center. The last digit on line three indicates whether the item is a 3 curriculum guide 4 teaching device, or 5 text In this example, the item is a mathematics (510) text (5).
	4. H351h	4. Publisher designation
	5. 2t	5. This line may represent the grade or level, or it may represent a sequential number in a publisher's series of texts, or there may be no designation. The letter "t" following the grade level indicates that it is a teacher's edition. The letter "w" is used to designate a workbook. In the example, "2t" indicates a second grade teacher's edition.

Textbooks can be checked out of the library for three weeks.

Teaching Devices

A teaching device is an educational aid, such as a game, flash card, or a kit. The Curriculum Center contains approximately 150 teaching devices, which are located on the wall shelves in the Curriculum Center. They are arranged by broad subject categories, and cataloged in the Dewey Decimal classification, as described in the Textbook section above.

The borrower is responsible for counting all parts before checking out a teaching device, and is responsible for returning all parts.

If you need assistance in the Curriculum Center, see the library assistant in the Center, the education librarian in room 178B, or ask at the Reference Desk.

Curriculum Center Reorganization

The Curriculum Center is changing! An ongoing project, begun in the 2002-2003 academic year, will integrate the Juvenile Literature, Textbooks and Teacher Resources, and the Teaching Devices.

How will we do this? We are reclassifying all these materials using the Dewey Decimal Classification system according to the content of the resource, rather than by grade levels. For example:

Juvenile Fiction counting book Turtle splash! Countdown at the pond by Cathryn Falwell	Curr.Cen. 513.2 F199t Gr.PreK-3
Teacher resource book Mathematics assessment: a practical handbook for grades 3-5 edited by Jean Kerr Stenmark, William S. Bush	Curr.Cen. 513 M42 Gr.3-5
Textbook for elementary students	Curr.Cen. 513.2 A123b Gr.K-4

Why are we doing this? We're hoping to make finding resources on any subject much simpler. As you can see from the examples above, all of the math materials will be shelved near each other so when browsing through the math section you will be able to find ALL relevant materials, whether they are picture books, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, teacher guides, textbooks, activity books, assessment guides, or any other type of teacher resources.

As the reclassification of the Curriculum Center progresses, things will be a bit confusing with old and new call numbers on the shelves next to each other. Please be patient and ASK for help as needed. The Education Librarian (Bierce Room 178B) or anyone at the Reference Desk will be happy to help you find any materials you need.