Evaluation of the Reference Work Nature's Children

Part 1:

Evaluation of Reference Currently in Use:

Title:  Nature’s Children (Series, 81 titles)

Type: Print Books

Date of Publication: 1986 -2001

Publisher: Grolier Educational, Connecticut

Physical Dimensions:  8.5 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches

	Unacceptable	Acceptable	Exceeding
Currency	10 years old or older	Maximum of 5 years old	0-2 years old, or continually updated to remain current
Purpose	Provides minimal amount and/or contradicting information with little to no pictures and no supports.	Provides an adequate amount of information with supports like glossary or index in place. Has large, colourful pictures.	Provides ample amount of relevant information on subject. Has supports such as; glossary, index, table of contents. Has large, colourful pictures.
Relevancy / Audience	Does not meet reading level appropriate for either primary or intermediate. Information is unorganized or confusing to reader and does not contain any reading supports such as graphs, or images.	Meets reading level for either intermediate or primary.  Information is well organized and accessible, contains some reading supports such as graphs, or images.	Appropriate reading level for either primary or intermediate. Information is easily accessible, contains multiple reading supports, and directly connects to what is being studied.
Breadth and Scope	Does not contain information that meets the curriculum content.	Information is appropriate for curriculum content.	Information allows students to explore curricular content at a greater depth.

  Overview:

This collection of books has been used in our library for almost three decades for a variety of purposes and grade levels. It is used by specific teachers who use it for research projects on animals whose classes range from grade 2-4. It is also used in library lessons as an example when teaching how to use an index, table of contents, or glossary.  The reading level of these books is intermediate and is not suitable for most grade 2 or even 3 students even though it is often used by these grades. These books have numerous full-page pictures of the animal subject and contain various articles that go into detail about each species. Twenty years ago these were excellent resources, but in 2018 they can no longer be considered current, relevant, or useful for our student’s research purposes.

Currency and Accuracy:

Riedling states that science books except botany and natural history should be replaced after 5 years (24). These natural history books are much more than 5 years old and some of the information contained in the articles of these book are still likely to be accurate. However, there are dated references and possible contradicting information with more current resources. For instance, reading through the book on Bison I found the term “indian” to refer to the Buffalo hunts preformed by first nations peoples in the Prairies. This terminology is no loner acceptable in our educational setting.  Likewise, statistical facts and figures are no longer accurate. For example, the numbers of species listed as endangered would no longer represent present day information.

Purpose:

The purpose of this reference is to provide detailed information about one animal per book.  It provides an index and glossary to enhance the information provided and make it easily navigable. It has large full page pictures that depict the topic being discussed. The subjects are examined in great detail and provide students with an in-depth look at how the animal subject survives, its environment, life cycle, and interesting facts.

Relevancy:

These resources are at a reading level acceptable for older intermediate grades, but are used mostly by primary grades. This makes the reading level inappropriate for the intended audience at our school. The books provide a Table of Contents, Glossary, and Index and multiple pictures which is helpful for students but the information provided is no longer able to be trusted as accurate or relevant to the subject.  

Curricular Connections:

These books do not support the curriculum in BC in the sense that they do not reflect the language of the new curriculum. For reasons stated above, these books are too outdated to be of any use in the study of animals under the new curriculum guidelines.  

Library Space:

We are lucky to have a large physical library space and these books currently take up three shelves worth of book space. The shelves currently occupied by this series are usually left empty as they are too high for students to access by themselves. While this is not taking away space from other material, reference materials should be available for student use. Therefore, by placing them in this unreachable area we have already deemed them to be a non-priority resource and in an effort to keep our collection current they should not be in the library at all.

Part 2:

Evaluation of Reference considered as replacement:

Title:  Amazing Animals (Series, 70 titles)

Type: Print Books

Date of Publication: 2013 - 2018

Publisher: The Creative Company, Minnesota

Physical Dimensions:  9 x 11.25 x 0.3

	Unacceptable	Acceptable	Exceeding
Currency	10 years old or older	Maximum of 5 years old	0-2 years old, or continually updated to remain current
Purpose	Provides minimal amount and/or contradicting information with little to no pictures and no supports.	Provides an adequate amount of information with supports like glossary or index in place. Has large, colourful pictures.	Provides ample amount of relevant information on subject. Has supports such as; glossary, index, table of contents. Has large, colourful pictures.
Relevancy / Audience	Does not meet reading level appropriate for either primary or intermediate. Information is unorganized or confusing to reader and does not contain any reading supports such as graphs, or images.	Meets reading level for either intermediate or primary.  Information is well organized and accessible, contains some reading supports such as graphs, or images.	Appropriate reading level for either primary or intermediate. Information is easily accessible, contains multiple reading supports, and directly connects to what is being studied.
Breadth and Scope	Does not contain information that meets the curriculum content.	Information is appropriate for curriculum content.	Information allows students to explore curricular content at a greater depth.

  

Overview:

These Primary reading level information books are an updated version of what Nature’s Children offers. As Nature’s Children is still a popular reference to use in print form, I would be hesitant to replace it with an entirely digital resource. The primary grades target audience of these books is a better fit for our school’s needs. Amazing Animals would be more accessible to the younger classes who use this type of reference more often. It would be an excellent resource to use along with our District purchased online resources such as the World Book and National Geographic databases.

Currency and Accuracy:

Some of this series is already five years old, and therefore is potentially already out of date. However, because we already have some of the titles in the library and it still falls under the 5 year guideline Riedling expresses in Reference Skills for the School Librarian. I would invest in other relevant titles of this series to use along with our online World Book database (already purchased by the district).  

Purpose:

This series provides the same detailed description of a given animal that Nature’s Children offered. It has a numerous amount of full page pictures as well as helpful and eye-catching text supports, such as text boxes for interesting facts.

Relevancy:

This series contains full page illustrations, term definitions on the bottom of the page, and a table of contents. These books would be a useful replacement for our primary students to use as we already have a selection of this series in our non-fiction collection. These books would provide the same amount of information as the previous reference source, but in a clearer more concise format.

Curricular Content:

This series contains a variety of information that allows students to go beyond the basic curricular expectations and explore their subject in greater depth. It uses language relevant to the new curriculum, and facilitates the practice and assessment of curricular competencies in language arts, social studies and science.

Pricing and Library Space:

Purchasing other relevant titles in the series, and moving it to a more prominent reference section in the library, would provide those classes that require these books with an improved selection of choices. Individual copies costs $20.95, however they are often included in the J. Appleseed preview packages that we can receive a discount from.

References:

"Amazing Animals - J. Appleseed." Jappleseedmedia.Com, 2018, http://jappleseedmedia.com/shop/show/12772.

Bodden, Valerie, et al.. Amazing Animals. Mankato, Minn., Creative Education, 2013,.

Dingwall, Laima, et al.. Nature's Children. Toronto, Grolier, 1985,.

Riedling, Ann Marlow et al. Reference Skills For The School Librarian. 3rd ed., Santa Barbara, California, 2013,.