Making Discoveries
By Lisa Von Drasek

This is the last of three columns examining reference books. In this one, we will focus our attention on encyclopedias. Over the years, as a librarian in public and school libraries, one of the most frustrating occurrences is when a student comes to me and says, "I am doing a research project and my teacher says I can't use the encyclopedia."

I can understand the teacher's position. Often children will copy from the encyclopedia and go no further. I am advocating the encyclopedia as a starting point. The encyclopedia is a way to uncover search terms, a way to narrow a research topic and a tool to begin the research process.

We begin our research at school as soon as questions are asked and information needs to be verified. My first experience of this was when a five-year-old student who had just moved to New York from California proclaimed that he had seen the book I had just read aloud back at his old home. One of his classmates said it was impossible that the book could be in both places. I said a copy could very well be in both places.

When the teacher interjected with a meaningful look in his eyes with his own question – "How do you know?" – I realized I had a teachable moment.

We crowded around a computer terminal and I showed them how to access the student's public library in Chula Vista, CA via the Internet. And yes, the library catalog did show that they owned a copy of the book.

Elementary resources
A wonderful resource for early elementary students is the Student Discovery Encyclopedia (World Book, 2003, ISBN: 0-716-67409-2). This encyclopedia contains over 2,000 short articles accompanied by illustrations, diagrams and graphs. Because the material is not as in depth as The World Book, there isn't a need to buy one every year to keep current. It's written at an easy reading level so that it's accessible to second grad-ers, students with learning difficulties, as well as ESL students.

For third through eighth grade we own The World Book, Britannica and New Book of Knowledge encyclopedias. When selecting an encyclopedia, I am looking for accuracy of information and ease of use. We try having at least one of our encyclopedia sets current, meaning that it was published within the
past two years.

Discovering ancient Greece
Let's look at a research project on ancient Greece. The eighth grade teacher and I examined The World Book index for appropriate topics for research, including mythology, art, sports and architecture.

With topics in hand, students were able to explore the many volumes of our print encyclopedia. I'm often asked why we still use the print copy when we have the online version available. When searching the online versions we're often limited to information in which we're specifically interested.

The print editions allow for the serendipity of the words and facts on a page. In many instances, items of interest were lying next to the one we initially thought we wanted.

As the students explored the volumes, they were able to see that there are separate entries for some of their different interests – for example, the Olympics for sports and the Parthenon for architecture. On their note-taking sheets the students kept track of their search words and the location of the information. They used these terms when searching single topic volumes.

After we explore the encyclopedia and other print resources, such as Ancient Civilizations, (Grolier, 2000, 10 volumes, ISBN: 0-7172-9471-4), we then turn to our online encyclopedias, using the search terms we found in the print volumes.

At this point students discover that, for the most part, they're confirming information that they've already retrieved from other sources. The Internet is rich in primary sources. To avoid wasting time searching websites of uncertain origin or meta-sites where the links are often broken, we encourage our students to go to the suggested sites provided by The World Book Encyclopedia and Britannica Online.

The world has recently experienced the horrendous effects of a devastating tsunami. My first stop for any social studies information is the print edition of Lands and Peoples (Grolier, 2005, ISBN: 0-7172-8024-1). However, I was able to use the online edition of Lands and Peoples for the comprehensive background information I needed to understand the current events.

Using the public library
I know that these resources are expensive and that every media center won't be able to hold all of these reference materials. When setting up new school libraries, I recommend that at the bare minimum, a current set of the The World Book Encyclopedia and a set of Lands and Peoples be purchased.

I encourage teachers to connect with their local public libraries and plan a visit with their classes to get library cards for every student. Many of the research resources will be available there along with a few on-line resources from home or school. With a heads up from the teacher on the assignment, your public children's librarian, will be able to provide further information and help.

A word on plagiarism
We also talked to our students about plagiarism and modeled how to cite our sources. For articles and books, we make sure the students know the author, the title, the city of publication, publisher, publication date and page number. For websites, we ask for the author, website title, URL and date of access to the site. For more information on planning a lesson on plagiarism, a helpful site is www.plagiarism.org

SPECIAL SECTION
Listen Up to Audiobooks

The prices don't cover shipping and handling if you are buying from a manufacturer.

Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild, read by Elizabeth Sastre. (Imagination Studio, 2004, ISBN: 0-679-84759-6, three cassettes, 4 hours and 30 minutes, $26)

This 1937 British classic follows the everyday adventures of the three adopted Fossil sisters, Pauline, Petrova and Posy, as they work hard to help their guardian survive tough economic times. The narrator's soft English ac-cent and ability to create realistic characters is just right for the the old-fashioned tone of the book.

The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection, written and read by Neil Gaiman. (HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN:0-060-73298-9, one cd, one hour, $13.95)

This horror writer earns his status as a master storyteller with these four scary, and often humorous, tales. This almost-too-short collection includes "The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish," "The Wolves in the Wall," "Cinnamon" and "Crazy Hair." Not appropriate for the very young.

Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel, by Leslie Connor, read by Katherine Kellgrin. (Recorded Books, 2004, ISBN: 0-618-30564-5, $10.75)

The Recorded Books New Reader series produces cassettes to accompany picture books and chapter books for young readers. One side is the story narrated and the other side contains the same text with page-turn signals.

In 1856, Miss Bridie, bound for New York, selected a shovel as one object to take from her old home. This implement turns out to be essential in her new life. A simple tale that's a terrific story starter for a writer's workshop.

More Perfect than the Moon, by Patricia MacLachlan, read by Glenn Close. (Harper Audio, 2004, ISBN: 0-060-73592-9, $13.95)

This is the fourth book continuing the story begun in Sarah, Plain and Tall. We follow the youngest member of the Wittinger family as she describes life on her family's prairie farm. Award-winning actress Close gives unique voices to all the characters. This book stands alone, but it's sure to generate interest in the whole series. There is also a teacher's guide available from the publisher.

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Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY.

March 2005, Vol.35, No.6