This is the Kraus Curriculum Development Library Online (KCDL); it’s an online collection of curriculum guides, and it provides access to full-text sources when available. The guides were developed by school districts, individual schools, regional education consortia, states, educational agencies, and professional associations; according to the publishers, “this searchable database of curricula, frameworks, and standards brings together educational objectives, content, instructional strategies, and evaluative techniques for all subjects covered in PreK-12 and Adult Basic Education.”

At present, there are over 8,000 document records in the database, over 4,000 of which are linked to full-text.  The database offers a broad range of criteria by which to customize your search; these include:

• Title/annotation
• Primary section (e.g., adult basic education; bilingual/English (second language); career education; comprehensive/interdisciplinary; early childhood; etc.)
• Subject (categories ranging from general concepts, e.g., academic achievement, to broad academic disciplines, e.g.., mathematics, to specific sub-disciplines, e.g., algebra, calculus, geometry)
• Educational content (e.g., academic standards; classroom technique; evaluation methods; etc.)
• Grade level (Pre-K through Twelfth, Adult)
• Issuing agency (specific school, school system, organization, etc.)
• State
• Country
• Publication year
• KCDL edition (from 1983 through 2010)

You can search by as many of these variables as you like, and search results can also be restricted solely to records linked to full-text documents.  KCDL includes tutorials, FAQs, and other help and search support features.  You can access the Kraus  Collection via our Databases list or by searching by title for KCDL in our online catalog EDUCAT.

Our statistics indicate that this resource is seriously underused, and what this means is that it’s in danger of being canceled unless there’s evidence that it’s really serving the needs of the academic community.  Therefore:  give it a try, have fun searching it, pass the word along to your colleagues and peers.   And don’t hesitate to request a consultation with a librarian if you’d like to schedule a one-on-one session on the ins and outs of using this powerful database; just click on Ask a Librarian a Question under Library Services on our home page, click on the contact us link under Option 2,  and let us know how we can help you and when you’d like to meet.