This research guide is intended as an overview of library resources and services of particular relevance for students in the Adult Education Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS) program at Teachers College. The resources, primarily electronic and accessible from on and off campus, have been selected to support the aims and objectives of the program, emphasizing "transformative learning and development for adult and organizational change in many different settings — educational institutions, business and non-profit or government institutions, healthcare, and community settings," and ideally preparing "educational leaders to create bridges to strengthen organizational, community, and national capacity." The guide also includes a section describing research consultation and assistance services and options for document retrieval and delivery available to all members of the Teachers College community. Resources designated (CU) are accessible through Columbia University Libraries (https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog).
Online Catalogs
EDUCAT - The most definitive record of the holdings of the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, including books, e-books, journals, e-journals, dissertations, media, and other specialized collections of all kinds.
CLIO - A union catalog of Columbia University Libraries (exclusive of the libraries of Teachers College, the Columbia Law School, and Jewish Theological Seminary), providing the most definitive record of individual libraries' holdings of books, e-books, journals, e-journals, dissertations, media, and other specialized collections of all kinds.
WorldCat - A union catalog of the contents of over 10,000 libraries worldwide, providing the means to do exhaustive searching by author, title, subject, and numerous other criteria and to find locations for specific items in libraries nearby and elsewhere. A freely accessible version of WorldCat is at http://worldcat.org.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are the official subject terms prescribed by the Library of Congress for the cataloging of books and are in use in essentially all academic libraries. To find works pertaining to adult education, adult learning, and related topics, it may be useful to use some of the subject terms listed below when searching the online catalogs of libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University, and other institutions.
- Active learning [LB1027.23]
- Adult education [LC5201-LC6660]
- Adult education and state [LC5225.A36]
- Adult education teachers
- Adult learning [LC5225.L42]
- Adulthood -- Psychological aspects
- Continuing education [LC5201-LC6660.4]
- Critical pedagogy [LC196-LC196.5]
- Critical thinking
- Employees -- Coaching of [HF5549.5.C53]
- Employees -- Training of [HF5549.5.T7]
- Experiential learning [BF318.5 (Psychology)]
- Group work in education [LB1032]
- Occupational training [HD5715-HD5715.5]
- Organizational behavior [HD58.7]
- Organizational change [HD58.8]
- Organizational learning [HD58.82]
- Professional education [LC1051-LC1071]
- Reflective teaching
- Self-culture [LC25-LC33]
- Transfer of training [LB1059]
- Transformative learning [LC1100]
For an overview of the call number system used in our library and many other academic libraries, see the Library of Congress Classification Outline page.
Periodical Indexes
Education Databases
ERIC - Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to educational-related periodical literature, ERIC (which stands for Educational Resources Information Center) provides coverage of conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books, and monographs. In addition to this version, made available via the ProQuest platform, ERIC is also accessible via the U.S. government ERIC site and through Ebsco ERIC.
Education Full Text - Provides comprehensive coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks. Indexing coverage begins June 1983; abstracts are included beginning spring 1994; full text of some journals is available beginning in January 1996.
Education Index Retrospective - Provides cover-to-cover indexing for an international range of English-language periodicals and yearbooks; coverage from 1929 through mid-1983.
Education Research Complete - Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals, as well as full text for more than 1,200 journals, and includes full text for nearly 500 books and monographs.
Professional Development Collection - Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of nearly 520 high-quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. The database also contains more than 200 educational reports.
Social Science Databases
APA PsycNET - Single search interface for PsycARTICLES, PsycBOOKS, and PsycEXTRA; provides access to 100+ journals and 3,500+ books in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.
Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (CU) - Covers the contents of over 1,025 international legal periodicals and law books, providing coverage of scholarly articles, symposia, jurisdictional surveys, court decisions, legislation, books, book reviews, and more.
Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective (CU) - Indexes the contents of over 750 legal periodicals published in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand published between 1908 and 1981.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (CU) - A valuable online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research, IBSS includes over two million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951, providing broad coverage of international material and incorporating over 100 languages and countries.
PAIS Index (CU) - Contains citations to journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, "gray literature," research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, and Internet resources pertaining to public affairs and public policy issues.
PsycINFO (CU) - Covers the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
Social Sciences Full Text - Provides coverage of English-language journals across social science disciplines, with indexing from 1983, abstracting from 1984, and select access to full text from 1984 to the present.
Management Databases
Business Abstracts with Full Text (CU) - Provides indexing and abstracting of articles from over 800 English-language business magazines and trade and research journals, plus the full text of selected periodicals.
Business Source Complete (CU) - Provides full text for over 10,000 scholarly business journals and other sources, including more than 1,150 peer-reviewed business publications, and more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922. Coverage includes educational administration, management, and leadership and related topics.
Multidisciplinary Databases
Academic Search Premier - A multidisciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 journals, including nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals. See also Academic Search Complete (CU), a scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887.
EBSCOhost Research Databases (CU) - Provides access to numerous databases across disciplines, indexing journals and other scholarly publications; full text provided in many instances.
JSTOR (CU) - An online archive of over 1,200 leading scholarly journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles.
ProQuest (CU) - Provides broad multidisciplinary coverage of scholarly journals, newspapers, dissertations, and other types of publications; for international coverage and access to full texts of dissertations only, search ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, a subset of ProQuest.
Federated Search Engines
Quicksearch (via Columbia University Libraries) - To search the catalog, multiple periodical indexes, and other web resources simultaneously within a variety of subjects and disciplinary subcategories.
Super Search (via Gottesman Libraries) - To search some or all of our periodical indexes, plus EDUCAT and CLIO, simultaneously for books, journal articles, reports, dissertations, etc.
Google Scholar - Provides the means to search for scholarly research across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Print Resources
Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning (2004) [see e-version below]
Encyclopedia of Educational Research, 6th Edition (1992)
International Encyclopedia of Adult Education (2005)
International Encyclopedia of Adult Education and Training, 2nd Edition (1996)
E-Resources
Encyclopedia of Distributed Learning (CU) - This work attempts to define and apply "the best practices of contemporary continuing education"; "includes over 275 entries, each written by a specialist in that area, giving the reader comprehensive coverage of all aspects of distributed learning, including use of group processes, self-assessment, the life line experience, and developing a learning contract."
Encyclopedia of Education (2nd Edition) - The 2003 version of the classic resource in education and related fields.
Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology - An overview for students, researchers, and professionals in the areas of psychology, business, management, and human resources, providing state-of-the-art research and ready-to-use facts.
Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2nd Edition) - In more than 650 entries covers the entire spectrum of psychology, including notable people, theories, and terms; landmark case studies and experiments; applications of psychology in advertising, medicine, and sports; and career information.
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (CU) - This key reference work comprises 4,000 articles, commissioned by 52 Section Editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.
Key Concepts in Adult Education and Training (CU) - Provides an overview of the field in eight chapters focusing on the core concepts, international concepts, institutional concepts, work-related concepts, learning concepts, curricular concepts, structural concepts, and conceptual understandings.
E-Collections (Text, Images, Sound)
Alexander Street Press Databases - Themed collections of print documents, video, and recorded sound across disciplines; notable databases include Alexander Street Literature (cross-searchable collections covering the literatures of place, race, and gender), American Film Scripts Online (a searchable full-text database of screenplays and shooting scripts), Dance in Video (streaming video files of dance productions and documentaries by influential performers and companies of the 20th century), North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (personal views of what it meant to immigrate to the United States and Canada between 1880 and 1950), Opera in Video (streaming video database containing important opera performances), Theatre in Video (containing performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries in streaming video), and many others.
Ebook Central - Online books across a range of subject areas; searchable, under Browse Subjects, by Education, History & Political Science, Law, Social Science, etc. and various sub-topics, and by author, title, and other criteria.
National Bureau of Economic Research (CU) - Contains the full-text of working papers from the NBER, which covers four areas of empirical research: developing new statistical measurements, estimating quantitative models of economic behavior, assessing the effects of public policies on the U.S. economy, and projecting the effects of alternative policy proposals.
Nexis Uni (formerly Lexis Nexis Academic) (CU) - An interdisciplinary, full-text database of over 18,000 sources including newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, company reports and SEC filings, case law, government documents, transcripts of broadcasts, and selected reference works.
Westlaw - Contents include cases from the courts of all 50 states and the Federal courts; statutes from all 50 states and Federal statutes published in the United States Code Annotated; Federal regulations published in the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations; American Law Reports, a publication containing attorney-written articles that summarize and analyze case law on a particular legal issue; and American Jurisprudence 2d, a comprehensive encyclopedia of state and federal law.
Handbooks of Research
Print Resources
Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (2010)
Handbook of Adult Development and Learning (2006) [see e-version below]
Handbook of Research on Adult Learning and Development (2009)
Handbook of Research on Curriculum (1992)
Handbook of Research on Educational Administration, 2nd Edition (1999)
Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, 2nd Edition (2004)
Handbook of Research on Teacher Education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts, 3rd Edition (2008) [see e-version below]
Handbook of Research on Teaching, 5th Edition (2016)
Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice (2012) [see e-version below]
Interdisciplinary Handbook of Adult Lifespan Learning (1994)
The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning (2011) [see e-version below]
Routledge International Handbook of Lifelong Learning (2009)
E-Resources
Handbook of Adult Development (CU) - This 2003 resource, "an outgrowth of contemporary research on development over the adult lifespan," is made up of 30 chapters, written by key scholars in the field, divided into three major parts: (1) Introductory Theory and Method: (2) Biocognitive Development in Adulthood; and (2) Social Development in Adulthood.
Handbook of Adult Development and Learning - This work comprises 22 chapters divided into the following six parts: (1) Foundations; (2) Do Development and Learning Fuel One Another in Adulthood? Four Key Areas; (3) The Self-System in Adult Development and Learning; (4) The Higher Reaches of Adult Development and Learning; (5) Essential Contexts for the Learning, Developing Adult; and (6) Adult Development and Learning, Measured and Applied.
Handbook of Research on Teacher Education: Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts - "This Third Edition aims to stimulate a broad conversation about foundational issues; bring multiple perspectives to bear, including historical perspectives; provide new specificity to topics that have been undifferentiated in the past; and include diverse voices in the conversation."
Handbook of Transformative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice (CU) - "Provides a comprehensive and critical review of more than three decades of theory development, research, and practice in Transformative Learning (TL). It will help adult educators understand what transformative learning is, distinguish it from other forms of learning, and foster it in their practice. The book covers five broad areas: historical, theoretical, practical, research, and future perspective."
The Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning (CU) - This handbook, which comprises 27 chapters divided into seven parts, is the revised second edition of the 2006 Handbook of Adult Development and Learning, and explores "the synchronicity between development and learning . . . , as articles advance the latest theories to provide a rich foundation for this new area of study and practice for this interrelated field of study. At the border of two disciplines, this book focuses on the capacities of intelligence, meta-cognition, insight, self-efficacy, spirituality, interpersonal competence, wisdom, and other key adult attributes as they relate to positive changes and personal growth in adults."
Wiley Online Library (CU) - Provides full-text access to reference works in the social sciences and humanities. Notable titles include The Blackwell Handbook of Mentoring, the Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, The SMS Handbook of Organizational Capabilities, among others.
Reviews of Research
Annual Reviews (CU) - Reviews of topics in social sciences and other disciplines published as annual journals; see series for Economics, Law and Social Science, Political Science, and others.
New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education (CU) - "This quarterly journal is filled with resources for maximizing the effectiveness of every aspect of adult education. Each volume in the series is a completely self-contained, fully indexed edited collection featuring contributions from some of the top minds in the field."
Review of Educational Research - A publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the RER publishes quarterly critical, integrative reviews of research literature bearing on education, including conceptualizations, interpretations, and syntheses of scholarly work.
Review of Research in Education - A publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the RRE provides an annual overview and descriptive analysis of selected topics of relevant research literature through critical and synthesizing essays.
Citation Indexes
Scopus (CU) - Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track, analyze, and visualize research.
Web of Science (CU) - Comprising the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Science Citation Index Expanded, this database supports searching by topic, author, or publication name, and is also a major means for doing cited reference searching, to find articles that cite a person's work.
Google Scholar - Provides the means to search by author or publication title, and indicates and provides links to works that have cited the documents retrieved.
Digital Archives
Academic Commons - Columbia University's online repository, where current faculty, students, and staff can deposit the results of their scholarly work and research.
Internet Archive - A non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies, and music, as well as 150 billion archived web pages.
PocketKnowledge - The social archive of Teachers College, including unpublished manuscripts and archives from the library's collections, documents from other departments and administrative offices College-wide, and the work of TC students, faculty, and researchers.
Bibliography and Citation Management Programs
Citation Management Software - An extensive description of and guide to the use of Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote, courtesy of Columbia University Libraries.
Library Services
Ask a Librarian - To explore a variety of kinds of research support: submit an email reference query to librarians onsite; request a research consultation with a Gottesman librarian; review frequently asked questions via the library's Knowledge Database.
E-Reserves - Provides online access to digital course readings, including e-journal articles and book chapters, as well as call numbers for physical course reserves materials (books, DVDs, videos, etc.).
Requesting New Materials - Teachers College students, faculty, and staff may use the materials request form to request library materials not owned by Gottesman Libraries, or the Columbia Morningside Campus Libraries.
