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• Online sources, in cases where texts have been scanned and made available for public
download; and
• Through special collections, from the Richard Fryer library at the University of
Queensland (Brisbane), National Library Australia (Canberra), State Library of
Queensland (Brisbane), particularly the John Oxley collection within the State Library
of Queensland.
o This presented some difficulty at different stages, particularly at the John
Oxley collection, where textbooks are not systematically acquired or
catalogued thoroughly in the library’s catalogue. This fits with Issitt’s
statement that “...because of the definitional issues surrounding textbooks,
there has been no obvious category to be used by librarians under which they
could classify such works” (2004, p. 692). However, despite these limitations,
librarians themselves were (overwhelmingly) exceptionally helpful and skilful
in problem solving and offering alternative pathways to locate resources.
3.8.1 Anticipated difficulties and approaches to combat them.
At the beginning of this research, a number of anticipated difficulties in collecting data were
identified, with potential approaches to combating them put in place. These difficulties are
outlined here, including whether the anticipated difficulty was realised or not. The bulk of the
data collection occurred over a three year period. The first identified potential difficulty was
locating sufficient primary sources to conduct a thorough analysis. This was seen as a
potential difficulty due to the age of the documents and the availability of them. A number of
approaches to combat this were identified, including:
• Contacting publishing companies directly for access to out of print school textbooks;
o In the case of Jacaranda, the largest publisher of school textbooks in
Queensland, permission to access their textbook archives was denied, and
instead I was informed to access any textbooks I needed through the state
library. The reason my request was denied is because Jacaranda does not allow
public access to their books. Unfortunately, the Queensland State Library does
not hold in its collection all the textbooks that were needed for this research
(as this does not form part of their intentional collection). It is a source of
disappointment that Jacaranda did not allow their archives to be used for the
purpose of this research. Being a Queensland-based publisher of school
textbooks for over 50 years, they are a very popular and widely used
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