All About the Curriculum Materials Center

Mission: The Curriculum Materials Center at Ganser Library is designed primarily to support Teacher preparation students at Millersville University as they seek to analyze information and materials relevant and useful for their education coursework and field experiences. The Center also provides Millersville’s legion of cooperating teachers, other area teachers and schools, and community members with materials to support instructional design and practice.

Collections: The current collection of the CMC consists of:

Textbooks

Textbooks are collected for K-12 grades in all areas represented in modern educational systems. The publishers and titles are chosen in part to reflect the curricular design of area schools, but an attempt is made to choose a variety of types of textbook publishers for examination by education students. Typically, only teacher editions and supplementary materials are purchased, but every attempt is made to represent the entire grade series for a particular title or program.

Teacher Activity Books

The center houses a variety of activity books which encourage creative thinking in curricular and lesson design.

Kits

Kits and other lesson props and activities support specific lessons or themes. For recommendations, please see the reference desk in the Curriculum Center.

Videotapes

The video collection houses many titles that can be used to support particular curricular themes. Videos vary widely in their appropriateness for various age groups. Only those titles appropriate for the very young have been cataloged in regards to their age appropriateness. Please preview the title you select. Videotapes are cataloged in the Ganser Library Catalog. See Finding Curriculum Materials.

Audiotapes

The Curriculum Center collects cassette tapes containing music and spoken recordings, including selected books-on-tape and juvenile recordings. Audiotapes are cataloged in the Ganser Library Catalog. See Finding Curriculum Materials.

Curriculum Guides

The Curriculum Center maintains a microfiche collection called the Kraus Curriculum Development Library, which contains curriculum guides from participating school districts across the country. There is a paper finding guide associated with the collection: CURR REF LB2806.15.K73x1997 Index

Big Books

Big books make excellent centerpieces for lessons in early childhood education classes and elementary literacy curricula. The Curriculum Center houses a large number of Big Books, known as "Oversize text" in the Ganser Library Catalog. They are to be found in the labeled cabinets in the Curriculum Materials Center.

Children’s Books

The juvenile literature collection contains fiction and nonfiction titles for preschool through young adult ages. A complete collection of Caldecott and Newbery Award winners and honor books, as well as most other major Children’s Literature award winners is represented. A copy of each Caldecott and Newbery Award winner is also on reserve at the Ganser Library Circulation Desk.

Posters

The poster file is located in the labeled waist-high open files. Posters are generally purchased through scholastic publishers and follow curricular themes. See Finding Curriculum Materials for help locating these items, or browse the collection.

Transparencies

A collection of transparencies is located in the labeled file cabinets. Transparencies come in thematic sets and are best found through browsing.

Location: The Curriculum Materials Center, juvenile books, and ERIC Microfiche are all located on the 2^nd floor of Ganser Library.

Finding Curriculum Materials: The Curriculum Materials Center has been organized to encourage users to browse shelves for books and other materials, but in order to find a certain item or search for a variety of materials topically, you must use the Ganser Library Catalog. Certain search tips are useful when using the Catalog to find Curriculum Materials:

To search for kits and manipulatives, use the Guided Search. Click "Set More Limits" and choose "Material Type". You may select among a number of material types, including kits and visual material (posters, transparencies). After limits are set, continue with your search terms.

To search for videos, DVD’s and cassette tapes, in a Guided Search click "Set More Limits" and choose “Material Format". After limits are set, continue with your search terms.

To search for textbooks, in a Guided Search click “Set More Limits” and choose “Location”. After selecting textbooks, Set Limit, then continue with your Guided Search by typing a keyword or two that describe your needs.

Circulation Policy: All Curriculum Materials can be checked out following the typical circulation periods: 4 weeks for students; 180 days for faculty; 90 days for adjunct faculty; 4 weeks for staff; 4 weeks for community patrons. Videocassettes circulate for 1 week for Millersville University students, faculty, and staff only. Check all materials out at the Circulation Desk on the Main floor. Ganser Circulation Policy

Questions? Comments? jessica.george@millersville.edu

Last updated 7/04