Early Childhood Education and Services

Books are a good source of information as they can be easier to understand than journal articles, and still be reliable and trustworthy. However books may contain less up-to-date information than journal articles as it often takes longer for books to be written and published.

Books provide:

• in-depth coverage of a subject
• history and chronology
• overview of a large topic
• background information
• bibliographies of additional sources

Searching for books:

• When looking for books you may need to search for broader topics, then look up the table of contents or index to see if your specific topic is mentioned.

Reviewing books for research:

• Title page: has publication information such as complete title, names of all authors or editors, edition of the book, name of the publisher, city of publication, and date of publication.
• Table of contents: is at the front of the book and gives a general idea of the topics covered, as well as how the book is arranged (for example, chronologically or topically).
• List of illustrations: may appear near the front of a book, and gives a list of photographs, drawings, tables, or other types of illustrations used to support the contents of the book.
• Preface, forward or introduction: if included, can give the author's intention or purpose for writing the book.
• Bibliography or references: if included, can be found at the end of chapters or at the end of the book. The list may give sources that were used to create the work they accompany, or it may be a list of additional materials on the topic.
• Index: is usually located in the back of the book. It is an alphabetical list of the specific subjects in the book, along with the corresponding page numbers. An index can also provide subject terms and keywords that might be useful for further research on a topic.