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.

The student librarian for this term is Ms. Qin Liu. She can be reached at qliu_2003@yahoo.com

Please get the key from Jeannie or Roweena, EDST staff, when the Reading Room is not open.

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).