Early years (HE): New to the Library

Key points about books

• You can borrow up to 15 books
• Books are loaned for 2 weeks. If no one else requests your book, then we will extend your loan by another week. This will continue for 25 times and then we will ask you to return your book.  This will reset your renewals and you will be able to borrow it again as long as no one else has requested it

Key points about Reading Lists

• Find the reading list for your course in the Books and E-Books tab
• Reading lists include books and e-books
• Clicking on a reading list will take you to the Library Catalogue where you can look for other books on your subject
• You can reserve books by clicking on the Request this book button

Have a go at:

• Access the Academic Skills Development reading list from the Books tab. 
• Read beyond the reading list:  search the Library Catalogue for Child Development. 

Key points about Practitioner Magazines

• Aimed at early years educators and childcare professionals
• News and analysis of government policy.
• Guidance on the EYFS and early years curriculum
• Practical ideas and creative activities ,
• Best practice from sector experts
• Information on Management, training and careers.

Finding Practitioner Magazines

Go to Library Online for Early Years and click on the Articles & Journals tab. 

Click on the cover image of the magazine you want to search.  Enter your user ID and password 

Have a go

Click on Read This Issue. In the top right is the search box. Enter your keywords and make sure you select ‘All Issues’ Search eg “Attachment Theory”

Key points about E-Books

• We buy e-books from 3 main suppliers - this means that there are some differences in how e-books look and what you can do with them, depending on who we bought them from
• Every e-book will give you the option of linking directly to a chapter, searching for keywords, copying and pasting quotations, highlighting text, and reading offline. 
• Some e-books have limits where only one person can read the book at a time. 

Have a go at:

• Access a reading list and click on an e-book link. Then click on Read Online to view the full-text.  Use this opportunity to search for keywords, browse chapters, adjust the font size etc. 

Key points about Journals

• Journals are collections of articles, news, updates and opinion on current issues, which are aimed at academic and students, and sometimes people working in the industry.
• They are published at regular intervals throughout the year which means they can include very up-to-date information, and they usually focus on a specific topic so are useful if you want more detail on your topic than provided by textbooks.
• We have some journals in print, but most are available online via our databases. 
• You should use journal articles rather than information from the Internet as they have been checked prior to publication and can be relied on to be accurate and authoritative.

Finding Journal Articles Online

• Use our Discover service to find academic articles
• Break down your topic into simple keywords
• Write lists of keywords that describe your topic, separated by the word OR.  This will mean that you find any article which mentions one of those keywords
• if you don't get many relevant results, try adjusting your search. if you are getting too many results, try being more specific.  If you are not getting many results, try using more general terms. 

Have a go:

• Log on to Discover
• Go to Advanced Search
• Enter child development and play.
• How many results do you get? How could you narrow the search?

Suggestions

• Narrow to academic articles (you are getting lots of books in this search)
• Narrow by date
• Search for a phrase by using quote marks, i.e "child development". 
• Be more specific.  Enter terms such as theorists, issues or approaches, eg "play theory", "special educational needs", or risk.