Introduction to the New Brunswick School
Book Collection
Brief History
of Text-Book Use in New Brunswick
In the early
19th century, the choice of text-books for Canadian schools
was left to
the locality, nominally to the trustees, although in practice more
often it was what a teacher preferred or what parents had already
purchased. Educators and legislators soon recognized the need for
both uniformity and authorization of textbooks. In 1846, Egerton
Ryerson in Ontario obtained authorization of the Irish National Series
of school books. He succeeded in having the same books used by all
pupils in all publicly supported schools throughout that province.
In 1844,
province wide school inspections instigated by the New Brunswick House
of Assembly revealed that school books in use ranged over the
whole spectrum of texts published in the last seventy years. Even more
disturbing than the variety was the dearth of texts in many cases. The
Inspectors found that in some schools the only reading books were the
Spelling Book and the New Testament. In an attempt to address this
situation, the Parish School Act of 1847 authorized the newly created
Board of Education to spend £1000 for the purchase of books and
apparatus for the parish schools. The result was a major purchase of
books, maps and tablets from the Education Office in Dublin. From that
point the Irish National Series of books came into common use,
although their adoption remained optional. As late as the 1860s, a
variety of school books were still in use in the rural schools of New
Brunswick.
The Common
Schools Act of 1871 was the turning point in text-book use in New
Brunswick. Under this legislation, it was “the duty of the Board of
Education to prescribe all text-books, and no other than the books
prescribed can be used in any of the public schools”.
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History of the
UNB Archives Collection of School Texts
The UNB Archives
Collection of School Texts consists of 2,176 volumes with publication
dates ranging from the early 1800s to the 1990s. The collection
was acquired piecemeal from a variety of sources. The New Brunswick
Department of Education made one of the initial donations. A large
number of
texts were donated by individuals. Some items were transferred by the
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick as part of larger donations. The
Teachers’ College contributed some of the texts. Finally, as textbooks
became outdated, older editions were removed from the main library or
the Education Resource Centre stacks and transferred to the UNB
Archives.
By the
mid-1990s, the collection contained over 3,000 volumes and was
continuing
to grow. Organization, duplication and cataloguing became major
problems. Patron interest was ongoing but accessibility was
becoming increasingly difficult. With assistance from the JET program,
a student was hired for two summers to review holdings, remove
duplicates, create cataloguing records that could be customized for our
purposes and enter the information into a searchable database.
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Contents of
the UNB Archives Collection of School Texts
The initial
focus of the school book collection was on English language texts used
in the New Brunswick public school system. Review of the holdings
revealed a number of other closely related items, some of which were
included because they enhanced the collection overall. There are a few
texts that were obviously used in post-secondary education, in
particular teacher training. A sizable number of French language texts
for use by francophone or French immersion students are also
found within the collection. Some of the books may be more
appropriately characterized as supplementary materials, obviously
designed for classroom use, but probably at the discretion of
individual teachers. There were also a few items that may have
been part of the school reference library, rather than a text-book, but
this type of item was kept to a minimum. It should be noted that
curriculum guides and requisition lists were included, largely because
they help to document the usage of particular texts. Effort was made in
the format portion of the cataloguing record to recognize the
variations from a standard public school text- book.
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The Database
Detailed
cataloguing records have been prepared for each volume and entered into
a searchable database. Standard cataloguing elements: Author, Title,
Publication Information, Edition and Physical Description were compiled
for each volume. In view of the nature of the material, it was decided
that additional information would be of significant benefit to the
researcher. Both copyright date
and current date were
recorded,
often giving insight into the longevity of certain texts. Format
was noted as the collection includes a variety of textbooks, teachers’
manuals and workbooks, as well as curriculum guides and requisition
lists.
No comprehensive
reference tool exists detailing the use of textbooks in New Brunswick
schools so any evidence of a particular text being used was carefully
noted in the Jurisdiction
field. The obvious sources were
authorization by the Department of Education for New Brunswick on the
title page or official property stamps. The common practice among
students to inscribe their names and sometimes the name of their
school, grade or year was also noted as evidence of usage.
The Note field
was used to record the physical condition of the book including damage
to the text, spine or cover. In some instances references were added to
guide researchers to other volumes in a ‘set’.
It is common
practice for researchers to approach us with an interest in the texts
used to teach a particular curriculum subject. Assignment of a
curriculum subject heading was
critical, but very challenging.
Terminology and content change over time, with specialization or
integration of related subject areas, or when a subject is taught
at different levels of the school system. Decisions on subject areas
were necessarily arbitrary, but every effort was made to define the
subject area and to ensure consistency.
Researchers
should carefully check the
definitions of curriculum subjects. It is important that
researchers also
check related subjects where there is overlap between a very specific
subject such as algebra and more comprehensive programs such as
mathematics. The areas of language arts and literature were especially
problematic and researchers working in these areas are strongly advised
to read the definition of English and its component parts such as
grammar and drama. The distinction between language and literature is
at times so blurred that researchers would be well advised to search
both areas if one fails to reveal a particular text. A miscellaneous
section was created to accommodate texts which did not fit into
existing categories. In particular this was true of early 19th
century
texts which encompassed several subject areas that later were
approached as separate subjects.
French language
texts posed their own challenges. In instances where the text was
obviously designed to teach the French language to English speaking
students, the text was put into the category of French in the English
language texts. Similarly, the texts that were designed for
teaching literacy through the medium of the French language, went into
langue française in the French language texts on the assumption
they were used with francophone students or, if of recent origin,
possibly immersion students. Far more difficult were the advanced
French texts, particularly in the area of French literature. These
might have been used with francophone students, or very advanced
English speaking students.
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Document
Maintained by:
UNB
Archives
email
address archives@unb.ca
Last
Update: 2008/07/04