News Archives
Featured eJournal: Exceptionality
The BU community has full text online access to the current issues of the peer-reviewed title Exceptionality: A Special Education Journal. This quarterly serial offers excellent articles on the state of current research in special education practice. Articles from Exceptionality can be found in many databases, including BU Libraries Search, Academic Search Premier and Education Full Text. Our subscription provides access to current issues and issues going back to 1997.
From the journal’s Aims and Scope: “Areas of scholarship published in the journal include quantitative, qualitative, and single-subject research designs examining students and persons with exceptionalities, as well as reviews of the literature, discussion pieces, invited works, position papers, theoretical papers, policy analyses, and research syntheses.”
Featured eBook: Handbook of Reading Research, Volume V
The latest update to this well-known work of scholarship presents the work of more than 50 contributing authors and is organized into 28 chapters. The initial chapter introduces "game changers" in reading research, and following chapters address increasingly diversified populations, expanding forms of text and everyday communication methods, early language development and literacy, and implications for education policymakers.
Two final parts of the work deal with new methods in reading research - such as the usage of video data - and also better translating the fruits of research into actionable policies for classrooms and other learning spaces.
Did you know we provide access to more than a million eBooks in BU Libraries Search? Just type keywords into the search box and then select the limiter “Books / eBooks” along the right column. If you would then like to see only eBooks, further select the “Available Online” limiter.
Featured Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
With an amazing set of assets including daily news articles, a yearly almanac, and data on all kinds of topics, the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) is an essential tool for academics.
The CHE has a great website that offers many features, but if you are trying to gain access to an article while you're outside of the BU campus, you might face a log in screen that you can't get through. Why not come through the Libraries website to take advantage of our subscription?
Don't get locked out of articles you want to read and that you can read for free! Use the BU Libraries Search first to search for "Chronicle of Higher Education", log in with your BU credentials, and read away.
Welcome back to the Pickering Educational Resources Library
To all our new and returning students, welcome to the Pickering Educational Resources Library. We have a wonderful set of resources and services available to you both online and in-person.
- Research Guides on a variety of education-related topics to help kickstart your research.
- Online Education Databases for access to quality content from academic publishers.
- A variety of print materials housed in one of Pickering's many educational resources collections.
- Course Reserves services help students have access to course materials.
Where is the Pickering Library?
I can't find it.
- Pickering is in the basement at 2 Silber Way. As you walk in the entrance, turn to the right as you enter and you'll find the stairs down to the library.
Who do I contact if I have a library-related question?
- Feel free to call our service desk at 617-353-3734 during business hours or to email us at picklib@bu.edu with any questions.
Horn Book helps locate picture books on specific topics
There are two major "journal" publications from Horn Book, an important source for both Children's and Young Adult Literature. Both are available electronically through library subscriptions to current BU students, staff and faculty.
The Horn Book Magazine is a bi-monthly serial that features articles, regular columns and book reviews.
The other source, the Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books, is issued only twice a year and is a compilation of book reviews only. It clearly lays out many different categories that can help teachers easily locate books to use on specific topics.
Within the Guide, fiction is separated into Preschool, Picture Books, Grades K–3, 4-6, and a couple of other categories. Non-fiction is separated into many more categories, such as the Arts, Biographies, History (with subtopics Africa, Ancient and Medieval, etc.), Technology, and Science (with subtopics Math, Insects, Birds, etc.). Take a look at the Table of Contents of a recent issue to see a complete breakdown of the helpful way the Horn Book Guide categorizes children's books.
Science in the Classroom
Featured website: Science in the Classroom
A great resource for bringing cutting edge scientific research into High School and University classrooms, this wonderful site is a collaboration between the editors of Science journal and advisory board of scientists and science teachers. Annotated research articles, sortable by Physical or Biological science, are accompanied by discussion questions and a feature called “Learning Lens” that lets the user highlight annotation categories such as glossary, connections to learning standards, references, and news/policy links.
Doing research off-campus? Connect Google Scholar to BU Libraries Search
Did you know you can connect Google Scholar to BU Libraries Search?
To activate the connection, first sign in to your Google account if you have one. Then, click Settings on the Scholar home page, click into the "Library links" screen, and then search for Boston University.
Check the box next to "Find Online @ Boston University - View it @ BU" and click Save.
Then do a search, and you will notice the "View it @ BU" link on many article search results. However, Google does not present this link for eBooks, so remember to come to our site to use BU Libraries Search if you find a good book in Google Scholar.
Watch our video on using Google Scholar:
Featured database: Educator’s Reference Complete
Educator's Reference Complete is a collection of current news articles, scholarly articles, videos, and other materials related to education at all levels. For teachers and administrators, this database covers key areas including testing, child development and psychology, administration, bilingual education, and more. Date coverage: Full text 1984 - present; abstracts 1955 - present.
The image to the right is this database's Topic Finder, presenting an interesting way to visualize keyword results with related terms.
Remote help for education research
Boston University librarians continue to be accessible for remote help for the community in a number of ways.
If you are doing education research, please know that the Pickering Educational Resources Library staff can be reached via email at picklib@bu.edu. Another option is to make an appointment with Boston University's education librarian. The librarian is available to meet via Zoom with students who are just beginning education research papers, and is available to consult with those who are engaged in more advanced research as well.
More Ways to Get Help
- Search or browse Ask a Librarian FAQs
- Contact a subject specialist
- View Education Guides or Education Databases
- View Research Guides, Course Guides, & How-to Guides