Scottish college of education libraries: early history to 1958

Abstract

Teacher training colleges were estab lished in Scotland from 1837 onwards, under the management of the various churches. Libraries were extremely small throughout the nineteenth century, finance was irregular and there was little conception of the educational value of a library. The colleges rose in status during the twentieth century, and changes in teaching methods placed greater reliance on individual inquiry. Attempts to improve libraries in the 1920s were largely defeated by economic conditions then prevailing. Some progress was made in the postwar years, but significant developments had to await the 1960s and the general expansion of higher educa tion. (The author is undertaking further work to cover the period from 1958 to the present day.)