Children's Literature

How Do I Search for a Children's Literature or Young Adult Book?

Many of the Library's books pertaining to children's and young adult literature can be found in the P section (or, more specifically, the PZ section for books written for a children's or young adult audience), which is located on the second floor of Morris Library.   You can go into the stacks and browse this area, but because the library's collection is so large, it is often more efficient to search for a title within the catalog first, and then look around that title for other books by the same author.

Using a Catalog to Look Up A Book

To find a book it is best to start by searching DELCAT Discovery (which indexes the UD collection as well as items held by libraries around the world).  You can search by key word, author, title, or subject.   Subject searching can be very helpful in focusing a search.  Below are a few examples of subject headings used in books about children's and young adult literature:

• Children's literature -- Study and teaching -- United States
• Young adults in literature
• Children's literature, English -- History and criticism
• Young adult literature -- History and criticism
• Children -- Books and reading -- United States

Books written for a children's or young adult audience will often have a subject heading that ends with "juvenile fiction" or "juvenile literature".  A Subject search on these phrases (use DELCAT Discovery's Advanced Search feature) will allow you to browse records for many of these titles.

Be sure to click on the Availability link to see if the item is checked out of the library, and to locate the item's call number.  For more information about how to locate a book in the library using a call number, please see How To Read A Call Number.

DELCAT Discovery combines items held by the University of Delaware Library and items held by libraries around the world.  Therefore, using this resource opens up many new collections for you to search.  DELCAT Discovery can be searched simply, as one might use an online search engine, and then results can be manipulated using facets such as author, format, date, or topic.  Many records in WorldCat local are linked to online previews of the items, making it easy to determine if the item is relevant for your needs.  Items held by other libraries can be requested via Interlibrary Loan.  If you would like to limit your results to University of Delaware Library holdings only, toggle the "Libraries to search" field directly underneath the search box to 'University of Delaware Library'.

Please note:  If DELCAT Discovery indicates an item is shelved in the Library Annex, you can place an online request for that title, which will be retrieved and held for you at the Morris Library Help Center within one business day.