The Chancellor Oppenheimer Library carries a range of South African school textbooks for Grade R - Grade 12. These include teachers' guides. The textbooks are shelved in a separate collection in the Research Wing Level 5 and use the prefix WHT. Accompanying CD-Roms are kept at the Loans Desk.
The textbooks are currently arranged as below:-
Accounting WHT 65
Afrikaans WHT 439.2 or WHT 439.3
Arts and Culture WHT 75
Business Studies WHT 65.7
Consumer Studies WHT 64
Economics and Management Sciences WHT 33
English WHT 42.2 or WHT 42.3
Geography WHT 91.2 or WHT 91.3
History WHT 96.2 or WHT 96.3
isiXhosa WHT 496
Life Orientation WHT 150
Life Sciences WHT 57.3
Mathematics WHT 51
Mathematical Literacy WHT 51.7
Natural Sciences WHT 5
Social Sciences WHT 96
Religious Studies WHT 2
Technology WHT 62
This collection is shelved separately in the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library in the Research Wing Level 5. It contains curriculum support material for lesson planning and teaching practice in the form of juvenile fiction and non-fiction. The prefix for the Classroom Collection is WHJ.
This collection is found in Special Collections.
Books published in South Africa from 1989 and exhibited periodically by the Children's Book Forum of the Western Cape make up the core of this collection, apparently the only one of its kind in the country. The Children's Book Forum was founded in 1987, its aim being to encourage the writing, illustration, publishing and reading of, and research into, children's books in South Africa. The National Library of South Africa's Centre for the Book in Cape Town, whose mission it is to 'contribute to the development of reading especially among children', refers researchers to this collection.
The collection contains many useful texts used in the study of South Africa's languages. It is consulted by researchers in a number of disciplines such as English, Afrikaans, African Languages and Education, others researching the sociology of South African childhood as portrayed in children's books, as well as educators, book illustrators, writers and publishers. The University Libraries' Special Collections holds original artwork by South Africa's premier children's book illustrator, Niki Daly, whose books are housed in this collection.
This collection, also from Rare Books and Special Collections, contains examples of (mostly, but not
exclusively) English literature written for children (including periodical
literature) between the 17th century and the mid 20th century, as well as
works of critical relevance. Most of the books in the collection
have been acquired by donation, the initial donor being Patricia Ashby
Spilhaus.
The collection includes two important mini collections. The Alice in Wonderland Collection,
includes variant editions and parodies of Alice, as well as other
works by and about Lewis Carroll.
The
nucleus of the Robinson Crusoe Collection was
acquired by the University Library from J.W. Perry, one-time Librarian of
the University of the Witwatersrand, and subsequently added to by donation
or purchase. It contains variant editions and Robinsonades, books
which drew their inspiration from Defoe's story, as well as critical
works.
The collection is consulted by researchers in a number of fields, among
them those examining the archaeology and sociology of childhood or looking
for examples of adventure stories for young people describing their
protagonists' interaction with other societies. Found on its shelves
is Theo Gift's Cape Town Dicky, published by Hildesheim &
Faulkner, 1888, which describes the experiences in England of young Dicky,
sent "home" by his father who is stationed at the Cape. Dicky is to stay with his cousins. With him is his companion,
Usebi. The coming of the two colonials and their impact on the
English family is vividly described.
UCT Libraries is a deposit library for the International Institute
for Educational Planning (IIEP). Ignore the prefix WHU as these books are shelved with the general collection.