Once you have selected an Education topic, you will need to decide what terms to use when you are looking for information about that topic.  

Like other professions, Education has a specialized vocabulary.  While the layperson might search for information about children's "thinking," the educator might look for children's "cognitive processes" or a narrower term such as "visualization" in order to retrieve more relevant and higher quality information.

The Thesaurus of ERIC [Educational Resources Information Center] Descriptors suggests and defines the vocabulary of Education.  The Thesaurus is available in paper at the Reference Counter and online via the ERIC research database. 

Strategize about where to look for information on your topic.  Doing a quick search on Google or Yahoo! is a great way to acquire "spot" knowledge, but if you rely totally on the Internet, your information may be "spotty," inaccurate, or incomplete.

To find an authoritative overview that will bring you up to speed on a subject, think about Reference Resources and how your subject can fit into a “bigger picture.”  The Library has dictionaries and encyclopedias that are specific to almost every area of educational specialization.  For instance, if you want information about interpreting for people who are deaf, you might check the Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness.  (Remember to check the INDEX.  The information you seek may be included within a broader article that you might not find in a direct search.)

These Education encyclopedias and dictionaries in the Reference Stacks on Level 2 are a good place to begin your research:

• American Educator's Encyclopedia -- REF LB15 .D37 1982

• A Companion to the Philosophy of Education -- REF LB17 .C64 2003  

• Encyclopedia of American Education -- REF LB17 .U54 2001

• Encyclopedia of Education -- REF LB15 .E47 2003

• Greenwood Dictionary of Education -- REF LB15 .G68 2003

• Historical Dictionary of American Education -- REF LB15 .H57 1999

Clark Library also provides online access to many encyclopedias and dictionaries, such as Assessment Debate: A Reference Handbook, Religion in the Schools: A Reference Handbook, and Special Education: A Reference Handbook, that cover particular topics in Education.  You can access these online resources via the Library Catalog. 

Biographical information about Educators can be found in many Education encyclopedias and dictionaries and in biographical encyclopedias and dictionaries.  If the person is an educational psychologist, check psychology resources as well.

These Biographical resources, available in the Reference Stacks on the Main Floor, are a good place to begin your research:

• Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators -- REF LA2311 .O55 1997
• Educational Psychology: A Century of Contributions  --  LB1051 .E36214 2003
• Fifty Major Thinkers on Education -- REF LB17 .F56 2001
• Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education -- REF LB17 .F57 2001
• Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology -- REF BF31 .G35 1996
• Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education : a Biographical Introduction -- REF LA2301 .G88 2005  
• Historical Dictionary of American Education -- REF LB15 .H57 1999
• Lives in Education -- REF LB17 .S63 1994
• Pioneers of Early Childhood Education -- REF LB1139.23 .P45 1998
• Women in American Education, 1820-1955 -- REF LC1757 .E39 2002

Clark Library also provides online access to many biographical resources.  Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated will cover the most prominent educators while searchable collections such as Oxford Reference Online and OhioLINK Electronic Reference Books (ABC-CLIO) may provide information about the individuals who made contributions in more specialized areas. 

Information about court decisions and their legal implications within the field of Education can be found in education encyclopedias or in specialized legal resources such as West's Encyclopedia of American Law (REF KF154 .W47 2004.) 

For information about specific court cases, these resources available in the Reference Stacks on Level 2 are a good place to begin your research:

• American Public School Law -- REF KF4118 .A39 2005
• Education and the Law: A Dictionary -- REF KF4117 .T39 1996
• A Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education -- REF KF4114 .D53 1988
• Education Law -- REF KF4119 .R36
• U.S. Supreme Court Education Cases -- REF KF4110.3 .U15 1997

Clark Library also provides online access to the text of legal cases via the LexisNexis.research database.  Individual online titles such as Student Rights: A Reference Handbook  and Standards & Schooling in the United States: An Encyclopedia also contain background information about legal decisions. You can access these online resources via the Library Catalog.