There are libraries in nearly all school buildings. While many of them are small some are of large consequence. The one in the Christiania Cathedral School numbers thirty thousand volumes. This is one of the oldest and perhaps the largest library in any school of the country, and it is regarded with considerable justifiable pride.
The laboratories are furnished in harmony with their traditional plan of instruction. Instead of having a supply of apparatus so that most or all of the pupils may be occupied simultaneously in laboratory experimentation, they have but one set of instruments. However, they do furnish liberal quantities of materials for laboratory experimentation. The teacher is the chief operator, one or two pupils assist in the work, and the other members of the class are onlookers.
Where domestic arts are taught, rooms are fitted up especially for the purpose. Stoves, cooking utensils, and many other necessary articles are at hand ready for use. The efficiency of the work is in no wise hindered by lack of supplies. In many instances teachers go themselves to the markets and purchase provisions needed for the day. An earnest effort is made to combine theory and practice in proportions suitable to obtaining the best possible results.
Some of the larger buildings have special rooms for the storing of apparatus and illustrative materials (_Anskuelsesmidler_). Racks, cupboards, cabinets, drawers, cases, and the like provide convenient means for preserving these supplies and of rendering them easily accessible. Gymnastic halls and lunch rooms will be discussed in another section.
The playgrounds are generally small, but some of the schools have, in addition to the grounds immediately surrounding the buildings, athletic parks of considerable proportions. The grounds about the school buildings are arranged with a view of securing from them maximum returns. They are enclosed by high board or wire fence, or by stone or brick and cement walls. A heavy coating of gravel is usually placed on the ground in order to avoid the growth of vegetation or an accumulation of dust. "Keep off the grass" signs are not in evidence, for rarely do they attempt to have grassy lawns.