Cultural Advice

Aboriginal Peoples are advised the Library Collection contains images, voices and names of deceased people in physical and online resources.

The Library recognises the significance of the traditional cultural knowledges contained within its Collection. The Library acknowledge some materials contain language that may not reflect current attitudes, was published without consent or recognition, or, is offensive. These materials reflect the views of the authors and/or the period in which they were produced and do not represent the views of the Library.

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History of STEM Collection

The History of STEM Collection was donated to the Library in 2023 by Peter Sydenham, a Professor of Electronic Engineering at the South Australian Institute of Technology and University of South Australia from 1980 to 2000. After finding little representation of science and engineering history in Australian libraries, he collected these books to support his research into the developmental history of measurement and instrumentation.

Measurement and instrumentation is a subtopic spanning across all science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) specialties. While the Collection ranges across these disciplines, it also incorporates the fine arts and humanities. The geographic coverage of the collection is international, as measurement standards tend to be global rather than regional. The Collection largely consists of books but also includes museum catalogues, pamphlets, photographs, and unpublished notes. The oldest item dates to 1820 while the youngest was published in 2005.

The Collection provides insight into the development and application of the scientific process and resulting technology across the 19th and 20th centuries, as it matured from the early days of industrialisation to the emergence of digital methods. The Collection covers standards and practices both before and after the invention and application of the computer. According to Professor Sydenham, the Collection includes one of the earliest books to describe the phenomenon of electricity before the theories of electromagnetism were developed to explain it, and another title describes what it was like to travel on the earliest steam railway.

The themes in this collection include:

  • Measurement and testing philosophy and practical instrumentation as key tools to assist creation of new knowledge and to control systems
  • How the scientific method and its use has evolved
  • How technologies evolved to support new developments and improvements to benefit humans
  • Standards Organisations and their definitions that inform best practice
  • Biographies of the endeavours of past pioneers including Newton, Faraday, White, Lodge, Kelvin, Thompson, Bell, Swan, and more
  • The history of disciplines
  • The body of knowledge of classical physics
  • The development of professional societies and organisations
  • Collection catalogues of museums and other organisations.

Picture - Collection of STEM books, History of STEM Collection, UniSA Library 2024

Access and explore the collection

The Collection is housed in the Sir Eric Neal Library at the University of South Australia Mawson Lakes Campus. Access is by appointment only.

Contact Ask the Library to make an appointment or for more information.

You can explore the Collection by browsing Collection Discovery.

Picture - Collection of STEM books, History of STEM Collection, UniSA Library 2024

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