Evaluation of Reference Resource
Young Children's Encyclopedia
Part 1: Current Reference Resource In My School: Young Children's Encyclopedia
 |
| Young Children's Encyclopedia Retrieved from Google |
Purpose
An Encyclopedia is a book of knowledge
or academically refereed to as a reference resource. The purpose of a Young
Children’s Encyclopedia is to provide information to children in a kid friendly
format. Often Encyclopedias come in volumes usually in alphabetic order. An
Encyclopedia has a variety of topics and articles dealing with a range of
knowledge. This specific anthology comes in alphabetical order in volumes 1 to 16.
Relevancy
The intended audience in the Young
Children’s Encyclopedia is for primary students (grade one to grade four). The
table of contents is set out very clearly with bolded subtopic with a title and
page number. This provides the audience
easy access to find information in the anthology efficiently. Unfortunately the
information in this set is not appropriate for intended audience. The language
is not culturally appropriate using terms like “Indians” and all the contact is
based on American content, for example Abraham Lincoln and not someone like
John A McDonald. The texts use higher-level reading; so not all younger
children would not be able to independently use the texts to find information.
Currency
Britannia published this sets of
Children’s Encyclopedia in 1985. The writing style of this resource is very
similar to Dick and Jane stories.
Many entries are written in story format with little vocabulary supporting the
actual term. For example, the term Valentines
is just a story about making crafts. There is no information on the history
of Valentines or where it originated. There are many illustrations on each page
to engage younger readers and to help them use pictures to decode unfamiliar
words.
Curricular Connection
School curriculum has changed so
drastically since the early 80’s and there are not a lot of curricular
connections you can make with this set of Children’s Encyclopedias. About 90
percent of the information in the volumes are entertaining stories or poems. There are a few subtopics that cover
historical American figures, some science terminology and technology terms.
This source is very outdated with limited factual information and would be a
stretch for teachers, students and the school community to find information.
Space
My school is currently running under a traditional library setting. We are in a slow transition to a Learning Commons so the placement and space of furniture, resources is unwelcoming. We do not have a reference section in our library I found the children’s encyclopedias hidden in the shelf outside of the library.
My school is currently running under a traditional library setting. We are in a slow transition to a Learning Commons so the placement and space of furniture, resources is unwelcoming. We do not have a reference section in our library I found the children’s encyclopedias hidden in the shelf outside of the library.
Evaluation
Evaluating books, resources or technology is an important job for Teacher Librarians. One way a TL can conduct an evaluation on a particular resource in their school library while weeding their collection can be with an Evaluation Rubric. There are many areas to focus on for certain resources you are conducting the evaluation on. A great example of a Resource Evaluation Rubric can be found on snhu Shapiro Library website. I used their example and adapted it to work with my particular reference material. Within my school community this particular reference resource did not score favorably, 10/24. For a resource to still be adequate to stay in my school library it would need to have a score 20 or higher. As you can see from my Rubric below the only redeeming quality is that the references are in good physical quality, this could be due to the poor relevancy of information and currency.
Evaluating books, resources or technology is an important job for Teacher Librarians. One way a TL can conduct an evaluation on a particular resource in their school library while weeding their collection can be with an Evaluation Rubric. There are many areas to focus on for certain resources you are conducting the evaluation on. A great example of a Resource Evaluation Rubric can be found on snhu Shapiro Library website. I used their example and adapted it to work with my particular reference material. Within my school community this particular reference resource did not score favorably, 10/24. For a resource to still be adequate to stay in my school library it would need to have a score 20 or higher. As you can see from my Rubric below the only redeeming quality is that the references are in good physical quality, this could be due to the poor relevancy of information and currency.
Part 2: Potential Resource Replacement: Britannica Kids
Purpose
Authority
Purpose
Britannica kids is a safe and trust online
Encyclopedia website for students to nourish the desire for knowledge and seek
information independently. The purpose of Britannica Kids is to provide
information to children in a kid friendly format. Britannica Kids has a variety
of topics and articles and resources dealing with a range of knowledge for all
ages.
Retrieved from You Tube
Relevancy
It has age appropriate reading levels
from kindergarten to high school and beyond. Content is separated in three
tabs: Kids (up to grade five), Students (grade 6-8), and Scholars (grade
9-above). This allows kids to explore independently, through alphabetic letter
search just like the printed encyclopedia, search engine, articles, images and
videos, biographies, and animal kingdom.
Curricular Connection
Britannica Kids features more then
100,000 articles, 60,000 images and videos along with an interactive world
atlas, and Merriam-Webster dictionary. There is a text to speech function and
homework resources. The homework resources cover a variety of curriculum
subjects from kindergarten to high school. The curriculum standards are based
within the United States, (STEM, Common Core and more).
Space
This resource is an online source so
it will not take any physical space in the learning commons. The student body
can access the resource on: tablets, computers, IPod touches any electronic
device anywhere in the school. Because of privacy terms under the business
agreement only students, faculty members, administrators and employed staff can
use the subscribed website remotely.
Cost
Britannica Kids online costs $74.95 a
year; you can cancel your subscription at any time with written notice. When
your anniversary date approaches your credit card will be automatically charged
for another year subscription at the current annual rate. This rate can change
from year to year.
Currency
Britannica Kids website is currently up to date with content as of 2017. Currently the website has regular updates on existing content; editorial staff add in new articles and resources that cover all events and people that make up our history.
Authority
The information that is gathered to
generate the online encyclopedia is sourced from: leading educators, Pulitzer Prize
winners, Nobel laureates and editorial staff following high quality standards. This
particular website has been awarded a silver Honor medal from parents Choice
awards in 2017 along with a rave review from Mom does Review.
Evaluation
The Britannica Kids website offers
three types of subscription Services:
the first being advertising-supported, the second individual and family
consumer subscriptions; and third institutional/business school subscriptions.
This is an all around up to date reference material that is user friendly for
all age groups. Printed volumes are outdated by five years and they cost over
$1300 to Replace an electronic version is updated every year and only cost $75
annually.
Works Cited
Encyclopedia
Britannica. “Britiannica Library.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 7
January 2014. Web. 12 January 2018.
Kids
Britiannica. “Britiannica Kids.” Online. Encyclopedia Britcanna Inc. 2017. Web.
18 January 2018. From: https://kids.britannica.com/
Libguide
Snhu Shapiro Library. Evaluating Sources.
Retrieved Jan 12 from: https://libguides.snhu.edu/c.php?g=92303&p=2104295
I find sometimes elementary teachers are given the stereotype of being hoarders. Your discovery of this set of encyclopedias from 1985 reminds me of this! I'm not sure why we keep things in our schools which are so outdated and often inappropriate by today's standards, but I suppose it's a pretty sad comment on the state of public school funding as often I think we're afraid to throw something out if we don't have anything to replace it with. I've had to abandon this idea a bit with the library collection I've inherited, as I think it's really better to have nothing than to have something so horribly out of date and inaccurate. I also find that, particularly with young children, a minimalist approach works best as they are better served by having a smaller collection of high quality resources and aren't overwhelmed by browsing through hundreds of books.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder why the trend in these older "reference" materials for children is towards filling them with stories and craft project ideas. Quite frankly I find it a bit insulting to the intelligence of young children and it does a disservice to them not providing factual information in age appropriate terminology.