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As I write this, the Washington DC area is slowly recovering from its Presidents' Day snowstorm. In fact, the media has hyped it as "The Storm of the Century." Since we had hardly any snow the previous two years, I suppose they are correct. With the harshness of the weather here and around the country, I am reminded of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising. I think we are all beginning to believe the forces of the Dark are winning the battle and spring will never arrive. Whatever the weather, you still need to begin creating your summer reading list. Just as Will Stanton had his helper in the form of Merriman to combat the Dark, you have yours in the shape of The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. Our search tip of the month, listed below, will tell you how to create your list efficiently and have it looking professional.
Announcing: The question posed was how can I create a list of book titles to send out for our state children's award or a summer reading list. Also, we have lists from several sources and I need to combine all of them into one single list sorted by title. If you undertake the following steps you can prepare a formatted list using the database and your word processing program. In this case I used WORD. 1. Perform your search either by subject, author, ISBN, date, whatever criteria you choose. In this case if you have the ISBN numbers, the search process will go very quickly. 2. When you have the results list, check off the items that you want in your list. 3. Save checked items. 4. Display checked items to confirm that is what you want. 5. Click on Custom Report Button and accept the HTML default, change the length to 3 or 400 characters so you can get the entire annotation if you want it included. Number the six fields in the sequence you want them to appear (you don't need to use them all if you don't need them) and click create report. The result is a nicely formatted. 6. Start Word and copy this table and paste into a WORD document which will create a word table. Now if you want to add more items just repeat steps 1-5 and when you go to WORD delete the blank line between the two tables, at this point you can also delete the header row in the second table. What you have done is concatenated two tables to create one larger table. You can just keep building until you get all of the items you want in the table. To manipulate the table in Word, requires a few extra steps. (If you are not comfortable working with Word tables, you will need to consult help.) If you want you list arranged by title you will need to go in and manipulate the titles to make the articles, appear last (he titles are coming from the MARC records so we do not control how the library of Congress formats the data). You can also use the case changing ability in Word if you want to use the title case option. You can use table commands to search this table using any of the existing fields. (Note: If you had not deleted the header row for all of the table pieces they will all sort to the top and can be easily deleted). You can resize the fields however you want them to display or print. Voila! A beautifully formatted list.
This is a very long item and will be posted as part of the online help later this week.
We are proud to present the accomplishments of four women authors. Featured this month are The Edgar Award winning author Joan Lowery Nixon; the prolific Patricia Polacco; Dianne Ochiltree who not only creates beginning readers and picture books but also reviews books for Children's Literature; and Anne Rockwell who brings nonfiction to young children in fun and exciting ways. Themed reviews on books about Famous Women /Women of Note, Women Scientists and Women in Sports are all at-hand as you help teachers and students learn the myriad ways women have contributed to and improved our lives. Women Astronauts is the fourth segment in our twelve part series focused on the books that present various aspects of Space.
As you prepare your displays for St. Patrick's Day, you will want to look at our updated Irish Interests Themed Reviews. Separated into four categories, you will find books not only on St. Patrick's Day but also Irish Americans, Irish Tales and Myths, and Stories with an Irish Flavor.
The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database is your most complete source of information about children's books. Indeed, it is the next best thing to having the book in hand, and the best tool for leading you to the best books. All at a most affordable price. The database is updated mid-month; to subscribe to the CLCD, go to www.childrenslit.com.
Your inquiry about CLCD has generated this email. Our newsletter is issued monthly. Please be assured that we do not sell or rent our lists. If you do not wish to receive our monthly updates, please contact unsubscribe@childrenslit.com.
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