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Teaching and Learning

This guide is meant to help with education-focused research by sharing recommended resources and strategies for students and faculty.

Access NoveList Plus

  1. Select the link for NoveList Plus listed below. 
  2. Log-in with your ULID and password if you are prompted to do so. 

Browse for Books

Use Browse by Appeal when you don't know what you are looking for or interested in yet. After opening NoveList Plus, follow the directions below to learn how. 

  1. In the orange banner along the top of the screen, find Browse By second to the left. 
  2. From the Browse By drop-down menu, select Appeal
  3. At the top of the new screen, choose the tab that is appropriate for your age-range of interest. 
  4. Under 'Make Your Own Appeal Mix' in any of the three lines select from the available categories in the drop-down menu on the left: Character, Illustration, Pace, Storyline, Tone, and Writing Style. Recognize that the more restrictions you add, the fewer books will be returned. 

For each category you select, choose a value in the corresponding drop-down just to the right. 

Make Your Own Appeal Mix Example

I recommend if you are looking for books with diverse characters to set Character as one or more of: Culturally diverse, LGBTQIA diverse, Religiously diverse, and Ability diverse.

Then, make another category Storyline with the Own voices value. This means that the book will be written by someone who identifies within the same marginalized group as the character. 

      5.  Click the button, Find Titles to see results to browse through.

Search for Books

Use Advanced Search when you have a general or specific idea of what you are looking for. Open NoveList Plus then follow the directions below to learn how. 

  1. Under the search bar, select Advanced Search. 
  2. Add keywords to the search boxes to combine ideas or themes of interest. Keep the Select a Field default when using keywords.
    • If you are looking for bilingual materials, change Select a Field to GN Genre and type in bilingualSample Advanced Search
  3. As you scroll down there are many ways you might limit your search. Some I recommend playing around with are: Published Date, Award Winner, Audience, Fiction/Nonfiction, and Grade Level, and Lexile (if you have familiarity). 
  4. Select the Search Button.
  5. If desired, filter your results even more with Refine Results on the left. You will see many of the same categories on the left as when you Browse by Appeal. Like then, I recommend considering narrowing Storyline to Own voice and Character to at least one type of diversity if you are looking for diverse materials.

Evaluate Books

  1. From your results list using one or both of the methods above, select a title. 
  2. Here, you will see a lot of valuable information to help you decide if the book is appropriate for you. 
    • Read the book reviews. 
    • Gauge the Min/Max Grade Level.
    • Determine if the description, themes, and subjects are touching on the right things for your purposes. 
    • Understand the Lexile Number. To compare the Lexile to the grade level equivalency use the Readability Comparison Chart linked below. 

Access Books

  1. Select the Check Library Catalog icon to verify that Milner Library has access to your book selection.

From North to South NoveList Book Record

Help Videos: NoveList Plus

NoveList Plus is a database of literature that provides synopses and reviews of books, teaching ideas, and a Lexile Ranking (independent readability).

Watch the NoveList Plus Overview video to learn about how to find NoveList on the Milner website and an overview of the main features on NoveList. 

You can also open the NoveList Plus database directly using the link below. 

Watch the Basic Search for a Title Video to learn about how to search for a book by title on NoveList Plus.

Watch the Determining Readability of a Text/Lexile Levels Video to learn about where to find a book's lexile number on NoveList Plus and how to convert that to an approximate grade level. 

Watch the Advanced Searching Video in NoveList to get an overview of search limits (date, audience, grade, awards, etc.), how to narrow results, and find related lists and articles.
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