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Queen's University Library

Resources for Teacher-Librarians

Advocacy Materials

Partners in Learning: Teachers & Teacher-Librarians
This is a brochure made for teacher-candidates that outlines how teachers can work with teacher-librarians to implement the many inquiry objectives in the Ontario curriculum.

Alternative Practicum in Libraries
This is a brochure made to encourage teacher-candidates and teacher-librarians to consider joining forces as part of the Queen's University Bachelor of Education alternative practicum experience. Librarians who are interested in hosting a teacher candidate for a three-week placement after the March break are invited to contact Corinne Laverty via email: lavertyc@queensu.ca.

Library Programs and Student Performance.
This is a presentation by Professor Elizabeth Lee, Faculty of Education, Queen's University. The paper based on this research is:

Klinger, D.A., Lee, E.A., Stephenson, G., Deluca, C., Luu, K. (2009). Exemplary School Libraries in Ontario. Ontario Library Association, Toronto, ON.

Patti Owen's website offers current articles on inquiry for teacher librarians at the secondary level.

Teacher-Librarian's Toolkit for Evidence-Based Practice
In this toolkit you will:

  • Discover how to provide your school community with irrefutable evidence that your library program improves student achievement.
  • Learn how evidence-based practice can evolve your advocacy efforts into supportive action.
  • Build a repertoire of assessment tools and strategies.

Presentations for Your Classes

Links to Library Associations for Instruction Materials

About Queen's Library

You are welcome to bring your students on a walking tour of Stauffer Library to view a modern university library. To ensure an enjoyable learning experience, we recommend that a class be divided into small groups and assigned several activities. Sample activities follow:

  • Check the self-guided walking tour on the Web. The brochure can be printed or copies can be picked up in Stauffer Library at the main floor Directory just beside the spiral staircase. An overview of the Queen's Library describes collections, access, and services. Students can be asked to tour themselves and collect a few facts on the way to share with the rest of the class. (e.g. How many books are in the collections at Queen's, how many journals, other ideas below)
  • Have your students observe the library users at work. What new behaviours do they observe? (e.g. laptop use, copy cards, group study rooms)
  • What library features did students find different or unusual in comparison to the high school library? (e.g. fireplace reading room, reading rooms, compact shelving, number of books, number of floors, number of workstations)
  • Using one of the computer workstations, list the steps you would use to locate a copy of the book The Interpretation of Dreams. How many copies in English translation are in the library system? Find a copy that can be consulted in the upstairs collection. Determine the floor on which you would retrieve the book. Go to the appropriate floor and find the book on the shelf. What did you learn about the call number system used at Queen's in completing this exercise?

Check Encyclopedias

We recommend that students begin their research by consulting an encyclopedia. Apart from the many print encyclopedias in the Library, we provide a list of electronic encyclopedias. Some are free on the Web and others are available on CD-ROM only at the Stauffer Library "Plus" stations. Many university students find these tools useful in providing an overview and background information on a topic that is new to them. To identify our many print encyclopedias, try a keyword search in QCAT:

Keyword Search: encyclopedias and medieval (your topic)

Keyword Search: encyclopedias and women

Keyword Search: encyclopedias and "world war II" (quotations for phrases)

Subject Guides

Queen's librarians have created comprehensive subject guides to various areas of study. Each subject guide in the humanities and social sciences provides suggestions on how to begin research under the heading Approaches to Research or it may link to an overview of a Research Strategy Guide that illustrates the steps within the research process. Each subject guide in the humanities and social sciences outlines discipline-specific tools for identifying resources (reference works, books, articles, and websites). Use these guides as a starting point for suggested research tools in an area.

Find Books

Direct students to the Library's online catalogue (QCAT) to search for books and government documents. Students determine the holdings, locations and call numbers of Queen's University Library by searching QCAT. Experiment with author, title, subject and keyword searching to learn about the research process. There are many guides on how to use QCAT including an online tutorial and a basic search guide.

Sample activities:

  • What differences did students find when searching by subject and keyword?
  • How does this distinction help or hinder a search on a) Shakespeare or b) women rock musicians?
  • Experiment with synonyms and alternate phrases to refine or expand searching. What did you learn by using different search terms?

Find Articles

While at Queen's, follow the path at library.queensu.ca >> Research Tools >> Find Journal Articles to research subject indexes for periodicals in various disciplines. These indexes to articles represent the research published on a particular subject, not the holdings of Queen's Library. It is always necessary to determine if the articles identified in the index are available at Queen's. We recommend starting from one of the following broad subject indexes:

  • Canadian Business and Current Affairs 1982 - present (updated monthly)
    CBCA contains citations to articles in over 750 Canadian periodicals as well as the Globe and Mail and the National Post. Titles include popular sources such as Macleans and Time along with scholarly journals such as the Canadian Journal of Sociology. About one-third of this index includes fulltext articles which can be saved to disk or emailed to any account. Check the WebSPIRS 5.02 Quick Reference Card to learn about search options. To limit your search to fulltext, include the word "fulltext" in your search string and join all your words with "and".

    • e.g. fulltext and television and violence and children
    • e.g. fulltext and greenhouse effect and pollution

  • Humanities Index 1984 - present
    Provides citations to articles published in approximately 350 English-language scholarly journals and specialised magazines. Includes feature articles; interviews; obituaries; reviews (of ballets, dance programs, motion pictures, musicals, operas, plays, radio and TV programs); original works of fiction, poetry and drama; book reviews. Subject coverage includes archaeology, art, classical studies, communications, dance, film, folklore, history, journalism, linguistics, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology.

  • Social Sciences 1983 - present
    Provides citations to articles of at least one column in length published in more than 415 English-language social sciences journals. Includes feature articles; reports of symposia and conferences; interviews; biographies; obituaries; book reviews. Subject coverage includes anthropology, area studies, community health and medical care, corrections, criminology, economics, ethnic studies, geography, gerontology, international relations, law, minority studies, planning and public administration, police science, policy sciences, political studies, psychiatry, psychology, public welfare, social work, sociology, and urban studies.

Sample activities

  • Practice Search Techniques
    Match student research assignments with the broad subject indexes described above. If too many articles are retrieved, add more search terms to narrow the search (i.e. air pollution and suvs. If not enough articles are retrieved, add more search terms to broaden the search (i.e. air pollution and (suvs or automobile*). When searching an index, encourage students to reflect upon their search results. What are they learning about their topics by searching? Does this help to refine a research topic or determine specific questions to explore more deeply?
     
  • Check for Availability of a Journal
    When students are presented with a list of search results they need to learn how to locate the article itself. Articles that have fulltext online in CBCA will have a line that reads "Fulltext: number of words". To read one of these click on "View complete record" within that citation. Where no "fulltext" message appears, click on "Check to see if Queen's Library has this item". This automatically opens QCAT and searches the journal title to see if we subscribe to that journal. If a match is found, there may be a paper copy listed with a call number, and/or an electronic copy with a link to that journal online. Once you reach the journal online, look for your volume and page numbers to read the article on the screen. Online articles can always be printed or downloaded to disk, and sometimes there is also an email option.
     
  • Check Electronic Journal Collections
    Students may also choose to supplement what they find in the broad indexes mentioned above with fulltext articles from an electronic journal collection. Read Electronic Journals for instructions on how to search these collections of fulltext articles.
     
  • Newspaper Resources describes how to locate newspaper articles from past centuries up to the present day.

How-To Guides

Visit our How-To Guides for search tips on these topics:

  • using the library catalogue to find books
  • using journal indexes to find scholarly and popular journal articles
  • how to find newspaper articles
  • how to cite resources in a bibliography (including websites)
  • tools for web searching (includes academic subject directories such as Infomine
  • finding and writing book reviews

Web Resources

  • Search the Web
    Starting points for quick facts, the best subject directories with quality educational sites, and the most effective search engines.

Examples of Sites with Free Articles (mostly!)

The resources on this list link to journal indexes that provide articles free-of-charge on the Web. In some cases, there are free articles along with others that must be purchased. You should check your library to find out if they already own the articles that must be purchased.

  • AskERIC
    ERIC is the Educational Resources Information Center. The AskERIC database is free to search and provides full text of lesson plans and articles and documents relating to all facets and levels of education. AskERIC is updated monthly with the latest citations available and provides access to ERIC Document and Journal citations from 1966 to the present.To view the fulltext of ERIC documents, you must search from a Queen's workstation. To retrieve ERIC journal articles, you must check QCAT by journal title to see if Queen's subscribes to the journal you are interested in.
  • FindArticles.com
    This ad-supported tool provides quick searching to articles from 300 selected magazines dating back to 1998. Titles include trade publications and peer-reviewed titles in the areas of management, general interest, computing, science, and health. Search methodology is similar to search engines. Not for super-serious research but this is a good source for quick and dirty or hot topics and could be useful to undergraduates.
  • MagPortal
    MagPortal indexes about 150 free online periodicals going back to 2000. Included are well-know titles such as Money and the Atlantic Monthly as well as Web-only magazines such as Salon.com, D-Lib Magazine, and Search Engine Report. You can search by date, category, or keyword. The database only goes back to 2000. Rather little overlap with the journals covered by the other free full-text source, Findarticles.com
  • PubMed
    This is the free public version of MEDLINE, the most important journal index for healthcare practitioners and researchers. The database goes back to 1966 and is updated weekly. Produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Last Updated: 22 July 2011