HIT: Reference recommendations

["Kathryn K. Lafferty" <klaffert@PEN.K12.VA.US>]

A few weeks ago I asked for ideas of good reference sources for
K-12.  The following (long) list is the result of numerous
people taking the time to respond.  Thanks to all who did!!!



I'd check  a Facts on File catalog.  They had some great binder

type history books.  Documents on File, Historical People on
File, American

History on File.  I don't have catalog with me now, so those
names may be a

little off, but you get the idea.  They weren't too expensive,
the kids  and

teachers love them, they are easy to photo copy and like many
Facts on File

Binders the info is clearly and simply written.  Hope this
helps.







Definitely get Timetables of History by Grun.  I joined quality
Paperback

Book Club to get it for $1.  I also use Holidays and
Anniversaries of the

World quite a bit.





Buy CD Roms.

I got the World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia on CD ROM
FREEEEE!!!

The World Book Representative gave me so much dollar credit for
each set of

encyclopedias that families of children in my school
purchased.  I got it

free.  In Tennessee, we have to have one set of encyclopedias
with a

copyright no older than five years.  The CD counts.





We got a wonderful new set of encyclopedias on animals. I'm at
home and

not expecting to go to school all summer, so sorry I don't have
better

info:



   Grolier's

        Amazing Animals of the World. 24 volumes.

        (I *think* this is the title - green books)

                This set notes the habitats of the animals with
an icon, so

we

                used it heavily during biome research in 4th
grade.



Also:

   Grolier's

        Endangered Animals (Species?) of the World

         (I'm not sure this is the title)

          10 volumes

                This was also good, but the above set is really
super!



Hope this is helpful.









I very much recommed the Marshall Cavendish series on
Endangered Animals

and their multivolume (20 vols!) animal encyclopedia set.  What
with all

those rainforest animal assignments, it's more than saved my
life a

number of times. IF you have a CD-ROM player consider getting
more and

more of your reference books on CD -ROM.  THe CDs are so much
cheaper

than books and kids adore them.





I cannot imagine having a secondary reference collection which
does not

include _Annals of America_ (by Britannica).



As for the second problem, weed all of the outdated or material
in poor

shape.  Show your principal the worst of the group so he will
understand

the problems students might have using the current reference
collection.

Be sure to point out which classes would find information that
is out of

date, inaccurate, and/or wrong.



Sometimes it is better to have no information than bad
information.  Then

ask for enough money to get current material.



Since you have Internet access, do you have Netscape? If so,
try checking

out the Library of Congress and other history sites. They may
have some

good ideas, or some good references.





i was in the same position as you several years ago.  The best

used materials I have acquired for k-6 reference are ( in
addition to

encyclopedias) World Book's People and Places and their Young
Scientist.

Millbrook's Children's Atlases are excellent and *very* heavily
used.

Guinness book of World Records and the World Almanac are
excellent

resources for tons of info.  Kane's Famous First Facts..so-so,
facts

about the presidents, etc. moderate usage.  I find the more I
can have in

the ref. sec. on animals, birds, rainforests, space, etc. the
better.

Hope this helps.  Oh yes...a big American kennel book of Dog

Breeds...such items as this have the kids browsing in the ref.
section.

I have Gale's Major Author's and Illustrators.  It isn't as
heavily used

as I had hoped for.



Source of funding has been book fairs.



Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT



I came into just such a school 10 years ago.  What fun you're
going to have:

no one there knows what a library can do.  You'll show 'em!



Of course you're getting an encyclopedia.  World Book has or
had a scheme

whereby classes would get pledges from their friends and
relations for every

library book read, with the purpose of "earning" a new
encyclopedia.  You would

probably want both print and cd format eventually because the
indexing is

different and because only one child can use a cd-Rom station
at a given

moment.



The second on my list was 6 new almanacs, every single year.
In five years,

behold a classroom set where the same question will yield
different answers.

WHY becomes a valuable topic of discussion.



Then, because it is an elementary school, either the American
Book of Days or

some similar title.  Don't teachers ask for background on
holidays!



Field guides to various animals--see the Kingfisher guide, for
instance.

Cheaper?  The Zim guides still work, and even paper will serve,
on a reference

shelf.  Or Simon & Schuster has a nice series in paper.



I bought the Occupational Outlook Handbook, though of course
now you can get it

"on the net."  Seems the 4th and 5th graders research careers
every now and

then, and the structure of the information will get them over
the length of the

sentences.



And then a fistful of paperback sources important to children
(though not to

me).  The Sports Address book, the Encyclopedia of Baseball,
the Guinness Book

of World Records.  I wouldn't try to do without them or skip a
year:  these are

the books kids will actually learn to use a classified index
for.



I was lucky enough to "inherit" the Albums of American
History:  super

illustrations of all sorts of historical subjects.  Also a
multi-volume set on

the wildflowers of our state (New York).  Also about half of
the Junior Authors and Illustrators set.  Over the years I have
bought the rest.  We use it a lot, and I think it worthwhile.
On the other hand, I made no attempt to fill in our set of
Something About the Author:  there are too many volumes for our
space or

budget.  Also, I clip articles for a notebook where they can be
read through

clear plastic sleeves.



The National Geographic Index and Supplement are worth their
weight in gold, particularly because in every community where I
have worked there is some kind soul who will donate a backlog
of the magazines.  Again, this is an index children will really
learn to use independently by the time they hit third

grade.



I also subscribe to the Children's Magazine Guide, but kids
avoid it just as

teachers do the Reader's Guide:  by the time you finish fussing
with

supplements you no longer care about the original question.
One year, I was

able to borrow a demo database on cd, and the children used it
with ease and

enthusiasm.  I wish we had the $ to subscribe to the disk
version...





For about grade 4-8

Children's Press has a good collective biography series The
Titles are

Extraordinary African Americans

Extraordinary Hispanic Americans

---Native Americans

---Asian Americans.



There is just enough information for a brief report, and the
print is

large enough not to be intimadating.



Also check out Dorling Kindersly Eyewitness books.  I have 4 of
their

handbooks in my reference section--Memory fails me as to just
what they

are, One is Shells, One is Butterflies and Moths, and the other
two are

some other kind of science thing.



interested.



I'm in a 9-12 media center.  Since I'm at home, I'll have to
try to

remember what we have, which is plenty!  Here I go:



        Dictionary of American History

        Dictionary of American Biography (expensive, but vital)

        McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography

        Profiles in American History (from U.X.L., a divison of
Gale --

inexpesive, but very good, as it examines history from the
aspect of the

people who made history)

        Lands and People

        Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations

        Chronicles of the World

        This Fabulous Century



I'm having trouble remembering titles, but here are some
companies of

whose catalogs you should check: Gale and U.X.L.; Facts on
File; Watts





Get a copy of the Facts on File catalog.  Their stuff is
great.  I also

highly recommend Linworth Publishing periodicals Library Talk
and Book

Report that are essentially written by school librarians
(Library Talk is

elementary, Book Report is secondary).  Reviews are written by
librarians

(I'm one of them!), so info is practical.  I'm astonished that

Alexandria, Virginia doesn't offer better support for its
librarians.  I

absolutely love that part of the country; you're lucky to live
there.



I recently reviewed a book for Book Report called The
Collection Program

in Schools by Phyllis Van Orden.  lst ed. was in 1988; this is
1995.  It

is fabulous.  Good luck!





        I purchased the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
(Macmillan) last

year, and it is wonderful, especially if your world history and
American

history classes do much with this subject.  It is rather
expensive, but

it is worth the money.  I also have a favorite resource called
the

Almanac of Famous People that Gale Research publishes. It is
quite valuable.





     Good to see your post (I'm WAY behind on my mail).  I do
have a couple

of thoughts...

     First, I was in the same boat as you at the start of this
year and I

went to my PTO and posed the dilemma to them, explaining that I
really

couldn't afford a good reference book update from my current
budget without

compromising growth in the rest of the collection but saying
that I was very

concerned about the age and inadequacy of the Ref collection.
They jumped on the band wagon and gave me $2000 which I spent
entirely on Reference.

     In the area of history, hands down, the single best
purchase I made was

from U.X.L. (a Gale imprint) for only $76!  It is a 4 volume
set called

Explorers and Discoverers and it is SUPER!  Another set I
couldn't live

without is Marshall Cavendish's Wildlife of the World, a 13
volume set

written at a 3rd-4th grade reading level with all the essential
info and

great photos.

     Could you let me know if anyone responds with a
recommendation of a set

about American History.  That is our great weakness and ESLC
doesn't list

anything useful.


--
Kathy Lafferty
klaffert@pen.k12.va.us
Patrick Henry Elementary School
Alexandria, VA