The New Brunswick School Book Collection (HIL-SPECTB) contains over 2,000 volumes of mostly English-language texts used in the New Brunswick public school system from early 1800s to 1980s. Additional materials include French language texts, teacher training texts, as well as supplementary and reference materials that may have been available in school reference libraries. The collection also includes the New Brunswick Department of Education curriculum guides and requisition lists that help document usage of specific texts.
The collection was acquired over the years from a variety of sources including the New Brunswick Department of Education, the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, UNB’s Teachers’ College and its former library (Education Resource Centre), and individual donors.
Approximately 1,700 titles can be gleaned in UNB WorldCat using the following location search: b8:HIL-SPECTB. Check the fields in the catalogue record of a given textbook, such as the Notes field, which may contain useful information about a book's physical condition, owner(s), inscription(s), and other evidence of usage. This is a growing collection with a significant processing backlog.
The School Book Database, originally created in 2004, is no longer fully accessible but can still be browsed by curriculum subject. The subjects include both English and French listings. There is also a print finding aid available for researchers that includes 2,176 records grouped by curriculum subject. Since subject terminology and content change over time, decisions on assigning 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 (available in the print finding aid) and check related subjects with areas of overlap.
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.”