Education and Early Years/Early Childhood Studies

What are databases?

Get help with searching databases including our worksheet on how to find journal articles (PDF and Word guides available, opens in new window/tab). Or check out our video demo of how to find journal articles using the Education databases (opens in new window/tab) - featuring your fellow Education students!

All the databases below can be used to find journal articles and other research sources related to different aspects of Education. They are all supplied to us by Ebsco, so all have similar search screens, and there is overlap between them (if you repeat the same search on two databases, you will get some of the same results coming up in both, though you'll also get unique hits). You can also choose to cross-search multiple databases at once using the one-stop search link at the top of the list.

All these databases will require you to use your Brookes login to access them.

• One-stop search of key Education databases (Bear in mind this includes ERIC, so will get you a lot of US literature as well as British and European: but it is a quick and easy way to start.)
• British Education Index -  provides references to 350 British and selected European English language journals in the field of education and training. The database also provides limited coverage of books, reports and conference literature. Many references now have full text available. (Full list of titles covered available here.)
• Child Development and Adolescent Studies - key database for Early Childhood. (Full list of titles covered available here.)
• Education Abstracts - content on a wide array of subject areas including adult education, comparative education, government funding, higher education, school administration and teacher evaluation. Despite the name it does have full text available for many articles. (Full list of titles covered available here.)
• Educational Administration Abstracts - covers areas related to educational administration, including educational leadership, educational management, and educational research. Despite its name, many articles are available full-text. (Full list of titles covered available here.)
• ERIC - American based education database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC includes coverage of journal articles, conferences, and books.
• Other databases for areas related to Education

All the above databases are available to Brookes staff and students from on- and off-campus; you'll be asked to log in with your Brookes student/staff number and password.

Get help with searching databases including our worksheet on how to find journal articles (PDF and Word guides available, opens in new window/tab). Or check out our video demo of how to find journal articles using the Education databases (opens in new window/tab) - featuring your fellow Education students!

 

 

We have thousands of education journal titles available in full text online.

All of them are listed on LibrarySearch on the Library home page so you can search for a specific journal there (choose the Journal titles tab and then enter your journal title, eg british educational research journal). You can search for a specific title, or type in a keyword, and then use the "menu on the left  to narrow to just e-journals. 

LibrarySearch will also let you search for a specific known article - just enter the author's surname and part or all of the title under the default, LibrarySearch tab.

To look for journal articles on a topic, rather than from a specific journal, you can either use the LibrarySearch default search tab on the Library home page, or search our specialist Education databases- see Databases for Education for further details. Both LibrarySearch and the databases give you easy access to the full text of most (not all) articles.

The e-journals require you to log in - nearly always with your Brookes student/staff number and password, though a few have their own individual login details (information on the E-journals Finder page for that journal title).

The Library also subscribes to many other Education journals in print (paper) format. LibrarySearch provides details of all our print journals. As with e-journals, choose the Journal titles tab and then enter your journal title, eg british educational research journal. 

 

Our e-books let you read the whole of a textbook on your computer screen, laptop or tablet. In some cases you can download the whole book to a laptop or tablet for a limited number of days; in others, you can print or download very limited numbers of pages. Our e-book packages also let you add your own online notes to a book or make lists of your favourite e-books.

(You can't currently download most of our e-books to Kindles or other e-readers, because the publishers don't permit this since e-book readers are intended for e-books you have personally purchased.)

We have hundreds of core textbooks for Education available as e-books.

To search for and access e-books, follow these instructions. If you prefer to follow a printed guide, you can download our E-books for Education students guide (Word and PDF available) and work through that (guide will open in a new window/tab).

 

• Curriculum and individual subject areas
• Early Years
• Further Education
• Government, policy and standards
• Higher Education
• Primary Education
• Secondary Education
• Schools and teaching

 

Need a two-minute demo? Try one of our help videos planned and produced with BA Primary Teacher Education students...

• Welcome to LibrarySearch - how to find books, e-books, print journals and e-journals, and more with our new LibrarySearch
• Finding your reading lists online (planned and produced with BA Primary Teacher Education students - you need to have sound for this one)
• Finding journal articles with the Education databases (planned and produced with BA Primary Teacher Education students  - you need to have sound for this one)
  
  
• Brookes Library Online guide (Word and PDF versions available, opens in new window/tab)
• E-books for Education students guide (Word and PDF versions available, opens in new window/tab)
• Finding journal articles (Word/PDF worksheet for database searching, opens in new window/tab)
• Finding more and specialist information
• Defining your topic and using databases (also see our help under Databases above)
• Help with referencing and avoiding plagiarism
• Dissertation help
• EndNote: software to help you manage your references and write your bibliography
• Finding education statistics

 

• Early Childhood Studies/Early Years
• School Experience Centre (SEC)

 

• Reading guide for 3-6 year olds(Word or PDF)
• Reading guide for 6-8 year olds (Word or PDF)
• Reading guide for 8-12 year olds (Word or PDF)
• Reading guide for 12-16 year olds (Word or PDFb)
• Reading guide for books to develop story telling skills (Word or PDF)

 

If you are studying a Brookes Foundation degree at one of our partner colleges (Abingdon & Witney, Solihull or Swindon), have a look at our help and information specifically for our partner college students. If you are a non-college-based Brookes student who is currently off-campus, please go to our general page of Library services for Education students off-campus.

If you have worked through the relevant information, guides and tutorials on these pages and still need more help or advice on finding information in Education or Early Years, you're welcome to get in touch with the Education Librarians, Hazel Rothera or Charlotte Olehnovics.

Charlotte is the Early Years specialist, but either of us will be happy to try to help with any initial enquiry.

Our contact details are in the box on the right of the page. For quick queries, you can come to the Library Helpdesk at any time when Harcourt Hill Library is open.