Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:29:01.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

29 - The Civic universities and their libraries

from Part Five - The Spirit of Enquiry: Higher Education and Libraries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
F. W. Ratcliffe
Edited by
Alistair Black  and
Peter Hoare
Get access

Summary

Why these universities or colleges should be only at Cambridge and Oxford, I know no reason … doubtless it would be more suitable and more advantageous to the good of all the people, to have universities or colleges, one at least, in every great town or city in the nation, as in London, York, Bristol, Exeter, Norwich and the like: and for the state to allow these colleges an honest and competent maintenance, for some godly and learned men to teach the tongues and arts, under a due reformation. And this the state may the better do, by provision out of every county, or otherwise, as shall be judged the best, seeing then there will be no such need of endowment of scholarships; inasmuch as the people having colleges in their own cities, near their own houses, may maintain their children at home, whilst they learn in the schools; which would indeed be the greatest advantage to learning that can be thought of.

William Dell, Master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 1653

Much has been written about the spread of education in England before, during and after the industrial revolution. Many of the publications touch on the emergence of the Civic universities and a few deal directly with their origins, birth and early development. Inevitably, much that has been published has implications for their libraries but, apart from occasional comparative studies and references in the history of individual universities, these have rarely been considered in a general library context. University libraries are essentially corollaries of their universities and their modus vivendi and modus operandi are to a very large extent determined by them. In the case of the Civic university libraries, this is specially important, for their distinctive origins and early history set them apart from the libraries of Cambridge, Oxford and the ancient Scottish universities, and also from most of the later foundations.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland , pp. 357 - 376
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armytage, W. H. G.Civic universities: aspects of a British tradition (London, 1955).Google Scholar
Bassett, A. T., Gladstone's speeches: descriptive index and bibliography (London, 1916).Google Scholar
Bloomfield, B. C. (ed.). A directory of rare book and special collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, 2nd edn (London, 1997).Google Scholar
Bowyer, T. ‘The founding of the Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (Standing Conference of National and University Libraries [later, Society of College, National and University Libraries])’, in Thompson, (ed.), University library history.
Charlton, H. B.Portrait of a university, 1851–1951: to commemorate the centenary of Manchester University (Manchester, 1951).Google Scholar
Dell, W.The right reformation of learning, schools and universities (London, 1653).Google Scholar
Gladstone, W. E. ‘On books and the housing of them’, The Nineteenth Century 27 (1890).Google Scholar
Gosden, P. H. J. H., and Taylor, A. J. (eds.). Studies in the history of a university, 1874–1974: to commemorate the centenary of the University of Leeds (Leeds, 1975).Google Scholar
Hartog, P. J.The Owens College, Manchester, founded 1851: a brief history of the College and description of its various departments (Manchester, 1900).Google Scholar
Hewitt, H. ‘Confronting the modern city: the Manchester Free Public Library, 1850–80’, Urban History 27 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, I.The provincial press and the community (Manchester, 1971).Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, F. W. ‘Mr Gladstone, the Librarian, and St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden’, in Jagger, P. J. (ed.), Gladstone, politics and religion (London, 1985).Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, F. W. ‘Professional librarianship and the university library’ in Jeffreys, A. (ed.), The art of the librarian (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1973).Google Scholar
Roberts, S. C.British universities (London, 1947).Google Scholar
Roderick, G. W., and Stephens, M. D.. Education and industry in the nineteenth century (London, 1978).Google Scholar
Sadler, M. E. ‘The history of education’, in Herford, C. H. (ed.), Germany in the nineteenth century: a series of lectures, (Manchester, 1915).Google Scholar
Sampson, A.Anatomy of Britain (London, 1962).Google Scholar
Sanderson, M.The universities and British industry, 1850–1970 (London, 1972).Google Scholar
Thompson, J.A centennial history of the library of the University of Birmingham 1880–1995 (Birmingham, 2000).Google Scholar
Thompson, Joseph. The Owens College: its foundation and growth and its connection with the Victoria University, Manchester (Manchester, 1886).Google Scholar
University Grants Committee. Returns from universities and university colleges, 1920–21 (London, 1922).
,[Parry Report] University Grants Committee. Report of the committee on libraries (London, 1967).
Waller, R. D., and Legge, C. D.. ‘Adult education in the Manchester area’, in Manchester and its region: a survey (Manchester, 1962).Google Scholar
Woledge, G., and Page, B. S.. Manual of university and college library practice (London, 1940).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×