Anyone interested in learning about what was taught in Alberta schools in the past century used to go to the basement of the H. T. Coutts Education and Kinesiology and Physical Education Library at the University of Alberta. There? users would ask to be let into a locked room to view the historical curriculum collection.
Now? many of the historic textbooks are online and available through Controlled Digital Lending? the digital equivalent of a traditional library lending. It’s making for a new chapter in educational research at the urban university? which has about 40?000 students.
Its important for me to
Trace ideas in curriculum over time?” said Cathryn van buy sales lead Kessel? Assistant Professor of Education who is studying feminist issues in curriculum documents and textbooks. “The digitized collection allows researchers to shave countless hours off of our data collection. Being able to access electronic copies with searchable text is invaluable.”
CDL is also useful for the growing number of students taking online what happens when everyone who experienced classes at the university and researchers who live outside of Edmonton or in other provinces? said Kim Frail? Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Library on campus.
The University of Alberta Libraries is Canada’s second-largest research library containing more than 5.2 million titles? 7.5 million volumes? 1.3 million e-books and 1?100 databases. They were also the first to adopt CDL in Canada.
The education library received
A bequest from estate from Marie Wiedrick? wife of a putting business up the former faculty member? Laurence Wiedrick? that has been use to fund the digitization project . With the help of the Internet Archives? which set up a scanning facility on campus? the university is more than halfway through digitizing approximately 6000 books that were used in Alberta schools from 1885 to 1985.