Library Collections
Library Collections
We hold two library collections – the National Child Care Library and the PET Library, both of which are open for research
The Planned Environment Therapy Library
The Planned Environment Therapy (PET) Library is a reference collection established by the Planned Environment Therapy Trust in 1989 to sit alongside the archive collections.
The PET Library collection
The Library has grown substantially over the last thirty years, both through acquisition and gifts from friends of the PET Archives. Today it includes hundreds of books, journals, newsletters, offprints and unpublished dissertations, some of which cannot be found in any other UK public library.
Searching the collection
The Reference Library is not catalogued, making it difficult to search for individual books. However, it is categorized by topic making it easy to browse the stacks for publications on certain subjects. The categories and subcategories are:
- Child and adolescent psychology
- Normal psychology and development
- Play and creativity
- Pathology/Emotional behavioural disorders
- Autism
- Child psychiatry and child guidance
- Child analysis and psychotherapy
- Attachment and separation
- Psychology of adolescence
- Adolescents and society
- Families, parents and caregivers
- Parents, marriages and families
- Family alternatives and child welfare
- Social work and social welfare
- Residential care of children
- Psychology, psychiatry and mental health services
- Adult psychology
- Psychiatry and anti-psychiatry
- Psychiatric hospitals
- Psychoanalysis and related fields
- Freud and psychoanalysis
- Sexuality and gender
- Psychoanalytic writings
- Psychotherapy and counselling
- Group analysis
- Group work
- Society and dissent
- Social psychology
- Sociology
- Religion and spirituality
- Radical thinking, radical living
- Social contexts
- Crime, punishment and the legal system
- The young offender
- Reposinding to delinquency
- Crime and punishment
- Alternatives to prison
- Law and the legal system
- Therapeutic environments
- Therapeutic communities and environments
- Therapeutic communities and social psychiatry
- Therapeutic communities for children and young people
- Education
- Psychology and sociology of education
- Exceptional children
- Emotional and behavioural problems
- Teachers, classrooms and the curriculum
- Organisation and leadership of schools
- Theory, philosophy and history of education
- Progressive and alternative education
- Journals and newsletters
Accessing specific publications
The Library stacks can be browsed in person in the Archives searchroom.
If you are looking for a specific publication but are unable to visit the PET Archives, our staff will do their best to look for the publication within the PET Library. However, please note that books cannot be borrowed from the collection, and we can only make partial copies of publications (up to 10% or one chapter), under UK copyright law. For more information about requesting scanned copies, see our information on copying service, or contact the team.
The National Child Care Library
The National Child Care Library (NCCL) was established in 2004 by David Lane and the Planned Environment Therapy Trust.
The NCCL collection
The NCCL is an extensive resource of published materials recording the history of private and public child care. The collection includes rare and out-of-print books, journals and pamphlets as well as information packs designed by NGOs and government. The materials mostly date from the twentieth century, although there are a few items from the turn of the last century.
Searching the collection
Unfortunately, the NCCL is not currently catalogued or categorized and can therefore only be accessed by browsing the shelves at the Mulberry Bush Third Space. Looking along the shelves at the unsorted collection can be a real treat – there are plenty of gems waiting to be read! However, without a catalogue, it is very difficult for staff to locate individual books in the collection. If you are looking for a specific publication on the topic of child care please contact us and we’ll do our best to search the shelves of the NCCL on your behalf.
Borrowing publications
We don’t operate a membership scheme for the NCCL. Instead we ask for readers to pay a fully refundable £5 deposit which allows them to borrow a book for up to four weeks. Books can be returned in person, or in the post.
(Please note: some rare and out of print books are not part of our borrowing scheme).