PRINTED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. 1891. Price Five Shillings. PREFACE. Educational IN 1854 a special loan exhibition of educational appliances, Grigin of English and Foreign, was held in St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, Collections. under the direction of the Society of Arts. At its close many of the exhibitors of books, school furniture, diagrams, &c. left their contributions at the disposal of the Society, by which they were subsequently handed over to the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education, and in 1857, when the Museum at South Kensington was formed, a portion of the temporary iron buildings was appropriated for the display of this Collection; and publishers and manufacturers were invited to add to it by loans, an invitation which was very widely responded to. For ten years the books, school furniture, elementary scientific apparatus, drawing models, and other educational appliances were displayed as one collection, and under the title of the Educational Museum attained considerable reputation both at home and abroad. ture, fittings, &c. In 1867 portions of the iron buildings were removed pre- School furniparatory to the erection of new permanent additions to the Art Museum, and space was found for the school furniture, apparatus, &c. first in the corridors and outbuildings of the Museum, and afterwards in the galleries to the south of the Horticultural Gardens, where they remained till, in 1888, other more pressing demands on the space made it necessary to discontinue the exhibition of all except the scientific apparatus, which has been combined with the Collection of Scientific Apparatus for Teaching and Research, formed after the special loan exhibition of Scientific Apparatus held at South Kensington in 1876. (See 36th Report of the Department, p. xxx.) E 61668. 750.-3/91. Wt. 21006. a 2 Educational Library. Revision of Meanwhile the elementary school books, &c. received from the Society of Arts had been retained in the Museum, and a reading room had been provided for the use of students. The collection was largely augmented by gifts from publishers and from the various exhibitions at home and abroad, and a supply of more advanced text books and works of reference was provided to meet the demands of readers, chiefly students connected with the Science and Art Schools of the Department. To these were added reports and other works bearing on the history and progress of education at home and abroad, together with numerous educational periodicals both English and Foreign. A library of general literature which had been formed for official use of the inspectors, &c. at the central office of the Committee of Council on Education was in 1876 removed here, and in 1882, after the re-organisation of the science teaching of the Department, it was determined to transfer to South Kensington from the Library of the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn Street for the use of the professors and students of the Normal School of Science all the books not required by the staff of the Geological Survey, or by the Mining Class. In 1883 a committee of advice and reference which had lately been appointed to examine and report on the educational collections of the South Kensington Museum found that by the accumulations of the past twenty-five years the Library had become larger and more comprehensive than was at first anticipated, and that it then contained more than 45,000 works (not including duplicates), many of course being small and unimportant. The reports and recommendations of this committee were considered by the Department, and the following Minute, dated the 19th July 1883, was the result as regarded the Library : My Lords have before them the reports on the Educational Museum of the Committee of Advice and Reference who were appointed by Minute of the 9th May 1882. In accordance with the recommendations therein contained, and with those of the Departmental Officers to whom such reports have been * Books from this collection are referred to by C.C.E.L., No. referred, My Lords have decided to make the following arrangements in regard to the above-mentioned Libraries : 1. The books relating to Science in the Educational Library to be amalgamated with the books brought from Jermyn Street, and formed into a Science Library, special facilities being afforded to the Professors of the Normal School to have out on loan such as they require. The books on Art to be added to the Art Library. 2. School and text books, English and Foreign, to be formed into a separate collection and retained with the Educational apparatus for reference and inspection, but not to be used by students as a reading library. 3. Books relating to the history, science, and art of education, English and Foreign; reports and memoirs relating to public instruction at home and abroad; educational periodicals of all countries; reports, calendars, examination papers, &c. of public educational institutions to be formed into a separate section by themselves. 4. Additions by purchase or otherwise to be only made in future of books falling under one or other of the preceding heads. 5. The books under sections 1, 3, and 4, to be housed for the present in the existing Educational Library rooms, and to be open to the public as at present, so long as there is room after providing for the students of the Normal School of Science. 6. No additions to be made to the other classes of books in the Educational Library; but those that are already in the possession of the Department to be retained as an Appendix to the Science and Educational Library in the present rooms, and to be open to use by readers therein, as at present. Since that time the additions to the Library have mainly been Science Library. confined to books on science, selected with special reference to the requirements of the professors and students of the Normal School, now the Royal College of Science. About 9,750 volumes have been received from Jermyn Street, a large proportion of these being Journals and Transactions of Scientific Societies, English and Foreign. At the close of 1884 the present Reading Room was opened, being the fifth room used for this purpose since 1857. The following Catalogue, which deals with the Science Library only, is really a tenth edition (with numerous additions, and some omissions) of the science portion of the "Catalogue of the Educational Division of the South Kensington Museum," which was first issued in 1857, and of which the ninth edition appeared * A catalogue of books relating to the history, science, and art of education, &c. is in preparation. |