November 2008
The Health Informatics program is offered by the School of Computer Science, in the faculty of Mathematics; researchers from other departments and groups such as Applied Health Studies and Statistics also participate. As budgets permit, materials are collected to support learning, teaching and research to the Masters level in areas such as
Materials are obtained in a variety ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions. As Health Informatics is not yet an academic department there is no individual Liaison Librarian, Collection Development Policy or a library acquisitions budget for this subject area. Instead, materials are selected by Liaison Librarians for each relevant department and paid for from library departmental budgets as appropriate.
In response to user preference, the Library obtains resources in electronic format whenever it is possible and practical to do so. Some electronic resources are obtained directly by the University of Waterloo Library and some are obtained through membership in the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. Access to and use of electronic resources is generally governed by licence agreements with the publisher or vendor.
The UW Library collection includes approximately 1000 current electronic and print journals in general subject areas of possible interest to Health Informatics. Many of the electronic journals are paid from the central Electronic Resources library fund. The Computer Science and Applied Health Studies library funds support the cost of 97 current journal subscriptions relating to Health Informatics. The collection also includes approximately 206 print monographs in subject areas of interest to Health Informatics. These monographs are mostly in print format but the collection is enhanced by an increasing number of monographs in electronic format.
The UW Library, along with the libraries of the University of Guelph (UG) and Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), is a member of the Tri-University Group of Libraries (TUG) consortium. Collections from the University of Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier University enhance the depth and breadth of local materials available in subject areas of interest to Health Informatics.
The Library has purchased or subscribes to a range of electronic resources including research databases, full text journals, monographs, numeric data, and government publications. In addition, the Library identifies and provides access to select material freely available through the Internet. Such material includes open access journals, catalogues of libraries around the world, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and style guides.
The following are some of the electronic resources of particular interest to Health Informatics:
Access to Print Collections
The Library’s print collections for Health Informatics are housed primarily in the Davis Library. Access to the entire Library collection, as well materials held by UG and WLU, is available through the Web accessible union catalogue known as TRELLIS (http://trellis1.tug-libraries.on.ca/).
The Library's automated circulation system allows users to charge out materials during the hours that the Library is open (every day most weeks, with some closures between terms and during the Christmas break) and to renew items online anytime. With the exception of the current issues of print journals and reference materials, most of the material in the Library’s collection circulates. Faculty, graduate students and staff may borrow most monographs for a term at a time.
The Library also delivers to faculty, students and staff copies of print journal articles from any of the UW library locations, and from the libraries of the UW affiliated and federated colleges and universities. Faculty, students and staff can also place holds on books from any of these libraries for pickup at any of the UW libraries’ circulation desks. Books and journal articles not owned by the UW Library but held by UG or WLU may be requested through TRELLIS. Books and copies of journal articles are delivered to faculty, students and staff within three working days. The cost is of these services is absorbed by the Library.
In partnership with UG and WLU, the Library owns a facility, known as the Annex, which is used to house low-use research material. In keeping with the University’s research intensive status, an agreement among the TUG libraries ensures that a last copy is maintained in perpetuity. The Preservation of Last Copy Agreement can be found at: http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/last_copy_
agreement_sept06.html. As with material from UG and WLU, books and copies of journal articles housed in the Annex are made available to faculty, students and staff within three working days. The cost is absorbed by the Library
Books and copies of articles from print journals will be sent, upon request, to students living some distance from the campus. With the exception of return postage for books, the cost is absorbed by the Library.
Access to Electronic Resources
The primary tool for accessing electronic resources selected by the Library is its Web site (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca). This site organizes and provides access to licensed resources available to only UW faculty, students and staff, as well as Internet resources freely available to anyone. The site also provides access to electronic resources hosted by the OCUL Scholars Portal program (http://www.scholarsportal.info/index.html) and available to the UW community through the Library's participation in consortia purchasing through OCUL.
In addition, many of our electronic resources can be found through a search of Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/).
The Library uses linking technology (SFX) to enable users to link directly from research databases to the UW Library full text electronic journal subscription or to the TRELLIS catalogue record for holdings and call number information. The Library also provides access to bibliographic management software (RefWorks).
UW faculty, students and staff may access electronic research databases and full text electronic journals from off-campus via the Library’s Proxy Server / Connect from Home feature.
Access to Resources from Institutions other than TUG
The Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery (ILL) service provides faculty, students and staff with books, copies of journal articles, theses, and government documents from libraries within Canada and elsewhere. The UW Library uses OCUL’s RACER Web based interlibrary loan system (http://racer.scholarsportal.info/vdx/index.html) to facilitate ILL access and service for users. With minor exceptions, the cost for this service is absorbed by the Library.
The UW Library also uses the CISTI Source current awareness and document delivery service (http://source.cisti.nrc.ca/index_custom.html) from the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information to provide copies of articles from journals not held by the UW Library and not available via document delivery from the University of Guelph or Wilfrid Laurier University. Faculty and graduate students are able to search CISTI Source for citations from over 17,000 journals in all subject areas and directly request copies of articles. Articles are generally delivered to on-campus addresses within four working days. The cost is absorbed by the Library.
Canadian university libraries extend in-person borrowing privileges to faculty students and staff from across the country. Faculty, students and staff are entitled to borrowing privileges at participating libraries (http://www.coppul.ca/rb/rbindex.html).
Information Services
Reference assistance is available in person or by telephone at the Library's Information Desks which are staffed by professional librarians and specially trained library associates. Alternatively, UW faculty, students and staff may get reference assistance via e-mail and on-line chat available through the Ask a Librarian service (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/asklib/index.html).
The Library also offers general orientation programs including tours, workshops on database searching and using the Web, and seminars for graduate students. In addition, each fall the Library participates in a campus-wide orientation program for international students.
The Liaison Librarians for Computer Science and Applied Health Studies are available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. They may be contacted directly in person, by phone, and by e-mail if a personal visit to the Library is not convenient.
The Liaison Librarians are also available to work with faculty to develop course integrated library instruction in the form of lectures, hands-on instruction, Web pages, or online courseware modules.
Graduate students may keep abreast of new services and developments in the Library by reading news @ your library (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/) an electronic newsletter prepared periodically and distributed to graduate students via the University’s Graduate Studies listserv.
In 2006, the Community Needs Assessment Committee at the UW Library conducted a web-based survey to assess patron satisfaction with our services, resources, and facilities. The survey was conducted from January 16, 2006 to February 16, 2006. A random sample of UW students, faculty and staff were invited by e-mail to complete the survey. Of the 1414 respondents, 14% were graduate students and they represented all major areas of study and research at UW. 88% of the graduate students responding to the survey indicated that they agreed with the statement that: “Overall, the UW Library and its staff meet my expectations for an excellent university library”.
During the past seven years, the Computer Science and Applied Health Studies library funds have spent $1,008,345 on information resources. Tables 1 and 2 provide further details.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures– Computer Science
Year |
Journal Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2001/02 |
$14,093.85 |
$54,328.69 |
$8,717.00 |
$77,139.54 |
2002/03 |
$11,550.71 |
$52,156.69 |
$7,538.67 |
$71,246.07 |
2003/04 |
$8,672.54 |
$51,828.82 |
$6,280.51 |
$66,781.87 |
2004/05 |
$6,167.31 |
$47,726.59 |
$5,322.17 |
$59,216.07 |
2005/06 |
$5,475.99 |
$77,361.35 |
$5,532.48 |
$88,369.82 |
2006/07 |
$6,341.47 |
$53,087.43 |
$5,202.34 |
$64,631.24 |
2007/08 |
$5,110.99 |
$46,964.17 |
$6,954.29 |
$59.029.45 |
TOTAL |
$57,412.86 |
$383,453.74 |
$45,547.46 |
$486,414.06 |
Table 2. Summary of Expenditures– Applied Health Studies
Year |
Journal Expenditure |
Book |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2001/02 |
$63,375.59 |
$17,885.78 |
$5,020.00 |
$86,281.37 |
2002/03 |
$71,039.54 |
$12,006.76 |
$4,097.87 |
$87,144.17 |
2003/04 |
$57,822.61 |
$15,816.69 |
$5,059.49 |
$78,698.79 |
2004/05 |
$39,181.59 |
$12,271.12 |
$3,467.83 |
$54,920.54 |
2005/06 |
$50,202.79 |
$20,028.43 |
$4,621.75 |
$74,852,97 |
2006/07 |
$52,302.35 |
$17,394.92 |
$3,134.92 |
$72,832.19 |
2007/08 |
$44,337.15 |
$16,958.94 |
$5,914.59 |
$67,210.68 |
TOTAL |
$378,261.62 | $112,362.64 | $31,316.45 | $521,940.71 |
What appears to be a decline in serials expenditures around 2004/05 deserves comment. Serials in an electronic format are often available for subscription in packages and the Library pays for access to these packages through a general fund for electronic resources. As a result, many serials are no longer paid for by funds established for specific disciplines so library support for these areas is actually much greater than indicated above. In addition, electronic resources such as Web of Science and Scopus are purchased from the general fund.
Materials acquired for other departments such as Physics, Mathematics and Science are also of interest to Health Informatics.
I believe that, to date, we have been able to meet the majority of the health informatics undergraduate students’ needs quite well. However, the Library’s current acquisitions budget is not sufficient to cover the cost of new resources that are coming onto the market.
As noted above, materials are selected by Liaison Librarians for each department and paid for from library departmental budgets as appropriate. Presently, we do not have a separate budget for Health Informatics; material purchased in support of health informatics teaching and research is at the expense of teaching and research purchases in other areas.
I would be pleased to discuss the Library's holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit. I believe that a moderate level of support for the graduate programme in health informatics can been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services. An increase to the Library’s Acquisition budget is needed to further enrich the collection in order to provide a higher level of support for the Course-Based Masters Degree in Health Informatics.
Prepared by Leeanne Romane, Liaison Librarian for Computer Science;
reviewed by: Jackie Stapleton, Liaison Librarian for Applied Health Studies.
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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