Most of our children's literature resources are in the Teaching Resources Collection, or TRC. The TRC is one of the Library's special collections and one of the best of its kind in the country. Close to the Library entrance, it is home to around 24,000 resources for primary and secondary trainee teachers, students wishing to (or already working) in educational settings, and students of children's literature. All BGU students and staff are however very welcome to make use of the TRC.
TRC resources include picture books, novels, non-fiction books, fairy tales, poetry, big books (fiction and non-fiction), dual language books, feature films, audiobooks, novelty books, puppets, and Storysacks®. There is an extensive collection of classic and contemporary children's literature, with all major authors and illustrators represented, demonstrating the development of children's literature through the decades. The emphasis is on British literature but there is a good selection of American fiction, world fiction and books translated into English from other languages. Newly published works are added each year, including titles shortlisted for book prizes and awards.
Books are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal Classification scheme used in many school libraries; see below for more about Dewey.
All TRC materials are searchable via WorldCat (look out for items with the 'Shelving Location' of Teaching Resources Collection).
Except for Storysacks®, which cannot be borrowed, and DVDs, which can be borrowed for 3 weeks at a time, all children's books can be borrowed for 12 weeks at a time. Most have a green spine label, with the exception of teenage fiction books which have a white spine label, and picture books which have a yellow spine label (big books have a green label if they are non-fiction and a yellow label if they are fiction).
Our newsletter, The Four Corners, discusses new titles and provides information on the TRC.
Most of the children's literature books in the Teaching Resources Collection are works of children's literature or are reference books about children's literature. Below is a list of the main shelfmarks.
| Dewey Class | Subject |
| 813 | North American Fiction |
| 821 | Poetry |
| 821.08 | Collected Poems |
| 821.3 | Nursery Rhymes |
| 822 | Plays and Drama |
| 823 | British Fiction |
| 823.01 | Early Readers |
| 823.08 | Collected Stories |
| 828 | Treasuries |
| 833 | German Fiction |
| 839 | Scandinavian Fiction |
| 843 | French Fiction |
| 896 | African Fiction |
| 899 | Australian Fiction |
In the TRC, the shelfmarks of books by specific writers are always followed by the first three letters of their surname, for example 823 ROW for J.K. Rowling or 813 COL for Suzanne Collins.
The following example shows how a book by Michael Morpurgo would normally be classified using Dewey:
800 = Literature
820 = English Literature
823 = English Fiction
Books by Michael Morpurgo are therefore located at shelfmark 823 MOR.
Picture Books are shelved separately and are arranged alphabetically by the first three letters of the author's surname.
It is important to remember that children's literature is studied from many different perspectives. Whilst works of children's literature are located in the TRC, books about children's literature are located in other parts of the library. Books about children's literature in general are in the main collection upstairs at 809.89282 while specific authors are at 823.912 and illustrators at 741.64092. Books about folk and fairy tales are kept on the ground floor of the main library at shelfmark 398.2.
The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books was bequeathed to Toronto Public Library in 1949 by Edgar Osborne, the County Librarian of Derbyshire. It included 2,000 children's books published in England to 1910, as well as books published in other countries, such as the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. From this beginning it has grown to over 80,000 rare and notable modern children's books. In the TRC we have 35 facsimile editions of books from the original collection including Orbis Sensualium Pictus (said to have been the first picture book for children) and Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense, as well as fairy tales, chapbooks, and books by Kate Greenaway.
Prue Goodwin is a graduate of BGU who, as a respected authority on primary education, received an honorary doctorate from our university in 2021. Prue has written and edited nearly 20 books on literacy through creativity, as well as teachers’ guides to inspirational, inclusive and empowering books.
Upon her retirement in 2022 Prue generously donated to our library her personal collection of over 400 children’s books, including novels, picture books and poetry anthologies. All reflected her time as an educator; one who cares passionately about promoting literacy by imparting a love of reading. Books written by her and donated by her can be found by searching WorldCat.
After many years as a primary and middle school teacher, Prue served as a director of the National Centre for Language and Literacy at the University of Reading, then as a consultant in literacy and learning for UK schools and publishers. In recognition of her contribution to the fields of literacy and children’s literature, and her support of related studies at BGU, the Prue Goodwin Award is presented annually to the student who achieves the highest mark in the dissertation module on our MA in Children’s Literature and Literacies.
Browsing the shelves is worthwhile and can be fun, but we recommend that you use WorldCat to find works on a specific subject or by a particular author, illustrator or poet.
Remember to make a note of the book's shelfmark and the name of the author as you will need both to find books on the shelves.
Check the location field in the item record to see where to look for the item in the library building. If it says Library Store you will need to ask at the Service Desk. Check availability field to ascertain if there are copies to borrow.
Another important reason to check WorldCat is to find e-books. These cannot be found by browsing the shelves.
Useful tip:
To find a picture book which addresses a specific subject, enter the subject terms pictorial works and juvenile fiction alongside your main search term in the WorldCat search box, for example Bereavement pictorial works juvenile fiction.
All images ©Bishop Grosseteste University.