Basic TMC Searching
Choose the Teaching Materials Collection in ONESearch to limit your search to ONLY materials from the TMC.
Search by a Specific Field
Looking for a specific book title or author? Want to narrow your search to a certain Subject Heading? Get straight to these fields through the Advanced Search.
From MyRedDragon or within ONESearch, click on Advanced Search.
Select "Teaching Materials Collection." In the dropdown menu below that, you can switch the field to author, title, etc. There are also many other options to choose from to narrow down your search even further!
Search by TMC Collection
Want a picture book for a read aloud? Looking for a nonfiction book for a science lesson? If you're looking for a specific format, you can get straight to the TMC collection you need by refining your results!
For more information on using the ONESearch, see the ONESearch Guide.
Save Your Results
You can save your search results to a "Favorites" list! This is helpful, so that you can start your searching anywhere, and then pull up your results list later when you come to the library.
Click on the little red pin at the top corner of the item you wish to save:
To access your Favorites, click on the pin icon at the top right of the screen:
You'll see a results page like this:
You may add tags (labels) to help categorize your favorites, or sort them by title, author or date added.
Children's Literature Database
Reading Levels
As you can see, there's quite a bit to consider when evaluating children's literature. All the usual criteria for good quality material applies, the same as you'd see in academic research: authorship, publishers, accuracy and so on are still important. But the age level and developmental appropriateness both come into play here, too! You need to make sure it's going to work for the grade you're placed in.
A great resource for evaluating age levels is the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. This database compiles ALL of the children's literature out there... even beyond the Teaching Materials Center! It's a great resource for making sure the books you pick are on level.
You have a very specific level range to consider here.
Book Reviews
The Children's Literature Database also compiles book reviews. These reviews are written by experts: teachers, librarians, and other professionals who work in the field with children's literature. These reviews are often published in many different places, such as various magazines, journals, and online review sources. What's great about the Children's Literature Database is that it compiles reviews from several different sources all in one place!
Why are reviews so important? The experts take a close look at these books and give their professional advice. They've seen a lot of books and know the criteria to look for. They can tell you whether or not a book is recommended, and why (or why not). It's another way to find out if a book is good quality.
You can also learn a lot about a book's contents from the reviews! It's like a sneak preview or movie trailer for books. This means you can find out whether or not the book is relevant, and a little of what it's about, before you even pull it from the shelf. This is especially helpful if you have limited time or access to the collection.
Watch the following video for a quick tutorial on finding book reviews in the Children's Literature Database:
Connecting to our Collection
The CLCD is a comprehensive database, just like it says in the name! It searches ALL the children's literature that's out there, beyond the TMC. If you'd like to just see what we have available, you can narrow your search to ONLY show what's in the TMC.
Follow these steps to narrow down your search to the TMC:
Anytime you see a heart icon next to a title, that means that we have it in our collection!
Follow these steps to narrow by reading level:
When you find a book that interests you:
