Collection Development - Children's Special Collections

 
20. Childrens Special Collections:

Childrens Reference
The Childrens Reference collection consists primarily of general encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, almanacs, bibliographies. The collection also includes sets of specialized resources, such as Lands and Peoples, and subject-specific resources such as world history or science encyclopedias. The books in this collection may only be used in the library and are shelved in a special reference section.

Teacher and Parent Resource
This special collection contains materials for teachers, parents and childcare providers and is primarily a book collection. The emphasis is on providing practical, as opposed to academic or highly theoretical, materials. Areas of emphasis include:

  • Books addressing the educational needs of children; a specific emphasis is placed on collecting books addressing literacy development
  • Homeschooling resources
  • Books on child development and parenting
  • Books addressing the recreational needs of children, providing ideas for enriching activities that children and adults can participate in together
  • Bibliographic reference and readers advisory materials
  • Books related to childrens literature and storytelling

Childrens Foreign Language
The Childrens Foreign Language collection primarily contains recreational reading and language learning materials for languages other than English, including Spanish, German, French, Chinese and others, with the Spanish language materials making up the bulk of the collection.

Materials include language dictionaries, bilingual books and media, popular or classic picture and juvenile fiction books written in a foreign language, and language instruction resources.

The collection serves children up to sixth grade, with an emphasis on materials for younger children. New language learners are the primary audience for this collection, but an increasing number of resources for native speakers are also being added to the collection.

Childrens North Dakota Collection
Materials with a local and/or regional focus that are also appropriate for and of interest to children birth through grade six are contained in this collection. Some duplication within this collection with titles in the Adult North Dakota Collection is allowed due to the nature of the collection.

Caldecott and Newbery Award
This is a non-circulating collection of Caldecott and Newbery Award winners to be used in-house.

Boy Scout and Girl Scout Resource
This is a small, circulating collection of Boy and Girl Scout handbooks, manuals and field books.