The children's literature comprehensive database

Kliatt, Nov, 2008 by Marilyn Courtot

Special Offer to KLIAT Subscribers

Once upon a time librarians could only dream of a resource that brings together multiple review sources, provides powerful search capabilities, allows the user to determine the search options, links the user with curriculum tools and author sites, makes creating bibliographies a simple task, and is easy to use. The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database (CLCD: www.childrenslit.com) has turned this dream into a reality. "When I am looking for information on books, I know where to turn--CLCD. A hit every time should be the CLCD motto!" says Brenda Randolph, Library Media Specialist, Silver Spring International Middle School, MD.

One of the first things a user notices is the range of reviews available in the CLCD. The 30-plus respected review sources present multiple viewpoints, enabling librarians and teachers to make more informed decisions. These reviews of children's and young adult media offer both American and international perspectives. Among these are the reviews of children's and young adult books from KLIATT, The ALAN Review, Booklist, The Horn Book Audio Reviews, KIRKUS Reviews, and Science Books & Films. Librarians use these reviews for book selection and booktalks and to create book displays.

Prior to CLCD, preparing booklists was a time-consuming and laborious chore. Thanks to the CLCD report feature, it is now easy to create bibliographies, summer reading lists, and booklists for classroom topics. Because CLCD is full text searchable, the user enters the words or phrases for the search, and every field in the MARC record is searched. This capability makes the search more comprehensive than simply using LC subject headings. The search results can be broadened or narrowed by adding more qualifiers. The report feature allows the librarian to select all the titles or specific titles as the result of a search and sort them in a number of ways--author, title, date, Dewey number, etc. The results can then be copied into the program the user chooses to create the final product.

CLCD includes over one million value-added elements such as awards, curriculum and author links, and reading metrics are part of this trusted resource, too. Since books in audio format have been growing in popularity over the last several years, CLCD makes it easy to determine if a book is available in another format. A simple title search will provide a list of all the published formats--hardcover, paperback, audio, DVD or film.

Award-winning books are simple to locate. Not only can users narrow the search to award-winning books only, they can also search by specific award, such as the Newbery, Calder cott and Printz Awards, and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. Using the hot links, the user can easily identify other titles that were honored that year. Other search qualifiers, such as publication date, grade, and reading metrics, can also be used to narrow a search. CLCD incorporates reading metrics from Lexile, Accelerated Reader and Reading Counts. Indeed, a review of CLCD in The Charleston Advisor states, "Although other good products offer children's literature reviews and information, CLCD's search capabilities surpass them in ease and available qualifiers, making this my first choice for locating reviews of books on a certain topic." The CLCD received a rating of 5 out of 5 stars for content and searchability from The Charleston Advisor.

CLCD is updated monthly, usually by mid-month, with an average of 1500 new reviews and MARC records. In additions to the reviews, links, awards, curriculum tools, book jackets, and much more are also added and updated on a monthly basis. Librarians and teachers are thrilled to have a reliable, easy-to-use resource that provides "one-stop shopping" for children's and young adult services needs.

Now that KLIATT, which has been a part of CLCD for several years, has decided to end its publication, CLCD is pleased to offer KLIATT subscribers an opportunity to try CLCD for two months at no charge. We will miss these wonderful reviews, but believe that our rich database can offer those who loved KLIATT another resource that will fulfill their needs. If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please call 301-469-2070, or fill in the trial form at www.childrenslit.com and note that you are a current KLIATT subscriber. Should you wish to subscribe to CLCD, the transition process is quite simple and we can easily issue an invoice.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Courtot

President, CLCD, LLC