Youth Collection
The Youth Collection, designed for the adult study of children's and young adult literature, contains more than 20,000 trade books, related reference sources, and a growing number of materials in electronic formats. Although a small historical collection is maintained, the focus of the Youth Collection is on recently published materials representing many genres, curriculum areas, and grades PK-12.
Staff are responsible for development of children’s/young adult materials, providing reference service for patrons using those materials, providing bibliographic instruction for patrons using those materials, maintaining and evaluating the collection, and serving as a professional resource for Iowa educators.
Description of the Collection
Finding Materials in the Youth Collection
OneSearch makes finding materials in the Youth Collection fast and efficient. In addition to the topic or other keyword you're interested in searching for, you may find these keywords helpful to add to your search:
- fiction
- "juvenile literature" (in quotes, to get mostly nonfiction results)
- poetry
- "stories without words" (for wordless books)
- "picture books" (will include some nonfiction and some fiction results
- "stories in rhyme"
- biography
- "graphic novels" (you can also try "comic books" if you're not seeing what you want)
You can also use Advanced Search to search by Title, Author/Creator, or Subject.
The record for each item indicates location, call number, and availability.
Electronic Resources
UNI subscribes to several databases that will assist you in identifying and reviewing materials related to children’s and young adult literature. Databases you are likely to use include such useful resources as the Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database, Children’s Core Collection, Education Full Text, and ERIC. Access these databases by going to the Rod Library Home Page and finding Databases A-Z. All available databases are organized alphabetically.
UNI also subscribes to research databases specifically geared toward PreK-12 students and educators. Access these databases through Databases A-Z. In the Subjects dropdown, choose "PreK-12 Information Sources" and then select the resource that best suits your purposes.
UNI students have access to additional PreK-12 databases through Iowa AEA Online. If you're in a teacher preparation program and don't know how to log in to these resources, the Youth Collection staff can help you out.