For library materials
- Children's books and secondary sources are collected by the Cotsen Children's Library as well as other special collections and language collections at Princeton.
- Use the Princeton University Library Catalog to start your search.
- You may restrict your search to Cotsen materials only by putting Cotsen's location codes (ctsn, ctsnrf, hsvc, rcpxc) in the Holding location box;
- You may
further on the Advanced Search page, utilizing the Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)
For non-English materials
- Facets on the left column of your search results allows you to narrow down by language and other dimensions of the materials.
- To search for non-Roman language materials, type in your keywords in the Romanized phonetic script (e.g., pinyin for Chinese) and English.
- Only newly cataloged materials have title, author, and publication statement transcribed in the original language in addition to the Romanized form, e.g.,
For book and non-book formats
The Princeton University Library houses special collections of non-book materials, ephemera, and objects that may be relevant to children's publications and culture.
Use keyword searching and facets for Format and Genre to explore the multitudes of formats collected by the library.
Above are some examples, though the search results are not exhaustive. Please do not hesitate to contact the curator for assistance with locating any specific format of interest.
For archival materials
- Archival materials concerning children's authors, illustrators, and publishers are mainly held at the Cotsen Children's Library, Manuscripts Division, and Rare Book Division.
- Archival materials are searched through Princeton University Library Finding Aids, which is a separate database from the library online catalog. It supports keyword searching (e.g., children's literature) as well browsing by the repository (e.g., Cotsen Children's Library).
Getting started
Need ideas for getting started with your search and research? Check out the Reference & Secondary Sources tab for--
- reference books
- scholarly works on children's literature and culture
