State of the Art Survey of Reference Sources for Children and Young People

Abstract

The ACEI (Association for Childhood Education International) in its five year interval Bibliography of Books For Children includes a spearate section on reference books for children. One aspect of this section is a presentation of the “State of the Art” as far as reference materials for elementary school age children are concerned. Textbooks on literature for children also include a lesser narrative and bibliographic section on reference books for elementary‐age children. Recent publications such as Carolyn Sue Peterson's give book‐length multi‐page descriptions of optimum reference book collections for elementary grade schools, junior high schools and high schools. No one of these attempts to say categorically that the state of the art of reference materials for children and young adults is at this stage progressing historically from few reference books for children to a late twentieth century plethora of richness and complexity. Peterson gives dates of the initial editions of many works and states that there are many gaps in the areas covered by reference books printed for children and young people.

Citation

Smith, A. (1976), "State of the Art Survey of Reference Sources for Children and Young People", Reference Services Review, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 23-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb048595