About the Reading Room
The Coolie Verner Memorial Reading Room (CVMRR) is located
in the Ponderosa F building, Room 101 on the University
of British Columbia campus. Ponderosa F is a two story building
due south of the First Nations House of Learning (look at
the map under ‘contact us’ on the EDST website
to find the exact location). It is run by volunteers who
are students in the Department of Educational Studies. The
Reading Room can also be contacted by mail at: Coolie Verner
Memorial Reading Room, Department of Educational Studies,
Faculty of Education, The University of British Columbia,
2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4. Phone: (604) 822-9668.
The Reading Room was created to commemorate Dr. Coolie
Verner for his contributions to the Adult Education Program
and to house his archival materials. Over the past decade,
it has expanded to become the EDST department reading room
and houses, in addition to Coolie Verner’s archival
materials, a wide variety of books and journals. The collection
includes many older books not available at the UBC library.
In addition, it has a variety of writing resources and the
handouts for the workshops and seminars held at the Department.
It also where all major papers and theses completed by EDST
students from 1984 to the present are kept.
The Reading Room does not lend materials, but is open for
public use as much as possible based on volunteer efforts.
It can also be used as a space for group study.
There will be no student librarian or volunteer working
at the Reading Room during the summer session. If you need
to use the room, please get the key from Jeannie or Roweena,
EDST staff. After you get in, please sign in on the log
book on the desk. Since the materials stored in the Reading
Room are the only copy, please do not take them out. If
you have to do so, please indicate your name and contact
information, and the title of the copy on the log look on
the desk. Thank you for your cooperation.
About Dr. Coolie Verner
Dr. Coolie Verner was one of the “founding fathers”
of North American academic adult education. He wrote over
170 works and lectured on adult education in Canada and
the U.S. as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Verner's
contributions to scholarship lay in three fields of endeavour:
adult education, rural sociology, and the history of cartography
and carto-bibliography. As an adult education, Verner helped
to create and develop the field as an academic discipline.
Under his guidance UBC became recognized as one of the major
centres for adult education in the world (Carroll, 1991).
“Professor Verner established the fourth graduate
program in adult education in the United States at Florida
State University and the first in Canada at the University
of British Columbia. Over and above specific publications
and other professional activities, however, his lasting
contribution will likely be regarded as that of helping
to create an orderly and systematic body of knowledge about
adult education. This reading room is dedicated to the furtherance
of that aim” (Extract from the Program Notes for the
Dedication and Naming of the Coolie Verner Reading Room,
1980, quoted from Boshier, 1992).
