WHAT IS THE EMC?
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Overview of the Mission, Collections and Hours of the EMC
The Education Materials Center (EMC) provides services and collections for education students, faculty, and staff of UW Oshkosh and the community. Staff at the EMC Service Desk will answer ready reference questions, help locate resources, assist in researching the library's databases, as well as guide patrons as they search the library's online catalog. The EMC Service Desk is open approximately 35 hours per week. All collections in the EMC area are available to patrons during the 98 ½ hours the library is open during the fall and spring semesters. The EMC remains accessible all hours the library is open at other times of the year, such as semester breaks, interim and summer.
The EMC Collection consists of instructional materials designed primarily to serve the needs of UW Oshkosh pre-service teachers and faculty. Included in the collection are children's, adolescent and young adult fiction and non-fiction books, K-12 textbooks, curriculum guides, educational software, children's magazines, a reference collection, and audiovisual (AV) resources. The AV Collection includes videos, kits, games and posters, and serves the needs of the entire UW Oshkosh campus. The EMC also has an extensive collection of Native American books for children and teachers. This collection was made possible by a generous donation of $15,000 from a former library employee, Jeanette Elmer. EMC staff has created over 25 bibliographies which highlight current "best" titles in children's and YA literature. All these titles can be found in the EMC. A vital part of the EMC's "collection" is available via its extensive website: www.uwosh.edu/library/emc.
The EMC is located on the North Side of the First Floor of the Polk Library, across from the Polk Computer Lab.
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EMC Collections
EMC collections as of September 2008:
- Children's and Young Adult Fiction: 6,113
- Children's and YA Nonfiction: 13,725
- Children's and YA Periodicals: 19
- Picture Books: 5,811
- EMC Reference Books: 614
- Teaching Ideas: 1,246
- K-12 Textbooks: 619
This collection supports the curriculum of the UW Oshkosh College of Education and Human Services as well as other colleges on the campus. It includes picture books, easy readers, fiction and non-fiction titles for preschool through high school students. Emphasis is placed on award winning titles, honor and notable books in many subject areas, and exemplary titles which support a cross-curricula approach to teaching. The EMC collection values resources of all kinds that represent all cultural groups. The EMC Staff regularly create bibliographies which reflect the "best" titles in the EMC collection. You can view these online by clicking on our Bibliographies link.
This collection is continually being evaluated in order to ensure that it represents the highest quality of literature, both classic and contemporary, for this audience. New titles are continually being added.
This collection consists of textbooks used in most areas of the PreK-12 curriculum. The collection is being continuously upgraded, and ongoing efforts are made to obtain current textbooks. The collection includes some textbooks which are currently used in Fox Valley schools. Emphasis in the textbook collection is on materials published within the last 10 years. Textbooks are organized by the Library of Congress classification system, and all are searchable using the online catalog.
The Reference Collection is home to many valuable and current reference books including indexes to children's, adolescent and young adult literature. Additionally, the national education standards in most subject areas, the Phi Delta Kappa Fastback Collection, general encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries, and bibliographies are also available here. This collection is continually updated.
Teaching Ideas Collection
The EMC's Teaching Ideas Collection consists of books that are, in particular, useful to students taking methods classes, doing a practicum or student teaching. These books provide information that can be readily applied to classroom teaching. This is a very useful collection for students needing to find lesson plans, unit plans, behavior management strategies, book suggestions for in-class use, etc.
The EMC AV collection has approximately 120 pieces of educational software, including DVDs, compact discs, and accompanying teacher manuals. For a list of software holdings intended for students PreK-12, see our Educational Software Bibliography. The EMC has one Macintosh and three IBM-compatible multimedia workstations which are available for students, faculty and instructional academic staff to review EMC software. Many other computers are available throughout the library and in the computer lab. The multimedia workstations are located near the AV Collection in the EMC.
The UW Oshkosh Audiovisual Collection is located in the EMC. This collection includes videos, DVDs, educational software, kits, games, posters, cassette tapes, puppets and other resource materials for future teachers. Many new videos continue to be added to the collection. Reviews of some of our AV materials can be found in the EMC Reference Collection. The AV Collection has as its scope all colleges and departments on campus and services the media needs of faculty and students, including the College of Education.
The EMC collects a variety of popular juvenile periodicals which support the K-12 curriculum. Sample titles include Sports Illustrated for Kids , Ranger Rick , Cobblestone , New Moon , Boy's Life , Science World , Spider , Ladybug and Cricket . Articles in children's magazines are indexed in the Children's Magazine Guide which is located in the EMC, and in online databases, such as Primary Search and Middle Search Plus . Back issues of all our children's magazines are available. Copies of articles may be made, but magazines cannot be checked out.
Curriculum Guides and Standards
Current Curriculum Guides for the Oshkosh Area School District and Appleton Area School District are available via the EMC's website: http://www.uwosh/edu/library/emc/standards.html. In addition, state and national standards for subject areas covered in the PreK-12 curriculum are available in print in the EMC's Reference Collection and online via the EMC website.
The EMC does not have a collection of sample tests that can be used to assess skills, perceptions or other measurements. However, a collection of testing materials is available in the CESA Media Center (CMC) located at the North end of the lower level of the library. There are tests to measure reading, math, spelling, and written language as well as adaptive behavior, articulation, receptive language, and more.
Electronic access to reviews of tests is available through the databases Mental Measurements Yearbook, ERIC and Education Research Complete.
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Education Materials in Polk Library (Not in the EMC)
Education Materials in the "Main Collection"
The "Main Collection" refers to the bulk of Polk Library's holdings. It is, essentially, everything other than such specialized in-house collections as the Archives, Browsing Collection, Government Documents and the Education Materials Center. With respect to the study of education, the Main Collection includes books about the history, psychology, philosophy, theory and practice of education. Many other topics related to the study of education are also found in the Main Collection .
Of books published since 1999, Polk Library has 3,763 books in the L Class (Education):
- L-LA (History of Education): 177
- LB (Theory and Practice of Education): 2,549
- LC (Special Aspects of Education): 996
- LD-LT (Individual Institutions, Etc.): 41
Approval Books
Polk Library also receives education books through its "approval plan" with its primary vendor. The approval plan allows the library to establish a profile of subjects, reader levels, publishers, etc. Books matching this profile are automatically sent to the library. The books that are received are reviewed by librarians and education faculty, and a determination is made whether to keep or return the books. Approval books are paid by a separate fund, not departmental allocations.
Here is a breakdown of the number of "approval plan" education books that were added to the collection:
- FY08: 101
- FY07: 203
- FY06: 258
- FY05: 247
Education Journals
The library's collection of education journals consists of both print and electronic journals. Peer-reviewed journals comprise a significant portion of our holdings. Please see the attached lists of these print and electronic journal titles. The library subscribes to 147 education journals and has access to over 600 electronically available education journals. (See complete journal lists, in pdf document)
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Online Education Resources
Research Databases
The library subscribes to over 90 research databases, making it possible for students to search for in-depth information found in journal articles. Many of these databases are frequently used by COEHS faculty, staff and students who are researching education-related topics. Here is an annotated list of some of the databases:
- ERIC: Contains citation and abstract information from over 750 educational journals and related documents from the Educational Resource Information Center.
Coverage: 1967 - present
- Education Research Complete:
Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing.
Coverage: Indexing (1881 - present), Full Text (1936 - present)
- Professional Development Collection: Collection of more than 550 high quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles
- MAS Ultra: School Edition: This comprehensive database, designed specifically for high school libraries, contains full text for more than 500 popular, high school magazines.
- Middle Search Plus: Provides abstracts and indexing for over 169 magazines, and searchable full text for 52 of the most frequently used magazines in middle school libraries, including 115 pamphlets. Total coverage includes nearly 400,000 articles.
- Primary Search: Provides the full text of 35 magazines for young readers and abstracts and indexing for 116 magazines. Primary Search includes Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, the World Almanac for Kids and the World Almanac of the USA .
Coverage: Indexing (1984 - present), Full Text (1989 - present)
The EMC Website
A portion of the EMC's resources can be found on its website: www.uwosh.edu/library/emc . This website provides access to an extensive array of education resources. Among the different types of resources found here are those that provide information about children's and YA literature; lesson plans appropriate to all levels of the PreK-12 curriculum; academic standards; children's book awards; children's and YA authors and illustrators; and a broad range of PreK-12 bibliographies.
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EMC Staff
EMC Employees
The EMC is staffed by one full-time professional librarian and two part-time student employees.
Support Staff
Several Polk Library staff members contribute to the maintenance and efficient running of the EMC. The Acquisitions Department in the library processes all books and library materials added to the EMC (and Main) Collection. This includes ordering books from book vendors; cataloging and labeling the books; and entering data into the library's catalog system for easy access by students, university faculty and staff. The Circulation Department is responsible for loaning EMC materials and receiving them when they're returned. It also is responsible for teaching shelving skills to EMC student workers and overseeing shelving accuracy. In addition, library administration has been responsive to the budgetary needs of the EMC. A number of librarians provide reference help to COEHS students; individualized research assistance; and library instruction to COEHS classes.
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Education Journals
See the complete list of print and online education journals (pdf file) available through the EMC.
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