The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in support of the proposed Waterloo/Mannheim Joint Degree Master of Arts in Intercultural German Studies, prepared by Helena Calogeridis, Liaison Librarian for Germanic and Slavic Studies.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the doctoral level in German, with emphasis on:
The decision to purchase Library materials for German is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policy (copy appended), which is developed by the Liaison Librarian in consultation with faculty members in the department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. Materials are obtained in a variety ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions.
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 (CRKN). Access to and use of electronic resources is generally governed by licence agreements with the publisher or vendor.
The UW Library collection includes approximately 1,000 current electronic and print journals in subject areas of possible interest to German. Many of the electronic journals are paid for from the central Electronic Resources library fund. The Germanic and Slavic library fund supports the purchase of 118 current journal subscriptions relating to German. The collection also includes approximately 120,100 monographs in subject areas of interest to German. For the most part, these monographs are in print format but an increasing number are 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 German. The following local archives and special collections include material relevant to German Canadian studies: University of Waterloo Library, Special Collections (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/WCGS/SpecColl.html); Conrad Grebel University, Mennonite Archives of Ontario (http://grebel.uwaterloo.ca/mao/); Wilfrid Laurier University, Archives & Special Collections (http://library.wlu.ca/archives/old).
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 German:
Access to Print Collections
The Library’s print collections for German are housed primarily in the Porter Library. Access to the entire Library collection, as well materials held by UG and WLU, is available through the Web accessible tool known as Primo (http://primo.tug-libraries.on.ca/primo_library/libweb/action/
search.do?vid=WATERLOO&fromLogin=true).
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, graduate 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 Primo. Books and copies of journal articles are delivered to faculty, students and staff within three working days. The cost 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 only to 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.
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 Librarian for Germanic and Slavic Studies is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. She may be contacted directly in person, by phone, and by e-mail if a personal visit to the Library is not convenient.
The Liaison Librarian is 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. The Librarian also develops and maintains a web-based subject guide for German (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/german/indexger.html).
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.
A new, locally developed open access database German Canadiana in Ontario Bibliography is about to be launched. It will become available on the UW Library’s website in January 2010.
In addition to the academic activities of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, Waterloo Centre for German Studies (WCGS) offers a wide range of educational and cultural activities for the academy and the broader community. WCGS members conduct research on the language, culture, and civilization of German-speaking peoples, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. WCGS website (http://www.wcgs.ca/www/index.php) provides information about the WCGS in general, about upcoming events, and about ongoing research projects.
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”.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures – Germanic and Slavic
Fund |
Fiscal Year |
Serial Expenditures |
Book Expenditures |
Approval Support |
Total Expenditures |
Germanic & Slavic |
2002/03 |
$21,260 |
$16,820 |
$42,490 |
$80,575 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2003/04 |
$21,355 |
$18,570 |
$45,420 |
$85,345 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2004/05 |
$16,795 |
$15,860 |
$47,175 |
$79,830 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2005/06 |
$17,945 |
$17,080 |
$45,180 |
$80,205 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2006/07 |
$18,610 |
$17,250 |
$48,355 |
$84,215 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2007/08 |
$16,900 |
$20,840 |
$63,610 |
$101,350 |
Germanic & Slavic |
2008/09 |
$19,445 |
$9,755 |
$69,125 |
$98,325 |
Total 2002/03 through 2008/09 |
$132,315 |
$116,175 |
$361,355 |
$609,845 |
|
N.B. All amounts have been rounded to the nearest dollar-multiple of 5.
During the past seven years, the Germanic and Slavic library fund has spent $609,845 on information resources. In 2008/09, $19,445 was spent for current journals and $78,880 for books. Table 1 provides further details.
The drop in book expenditures and approval plan support for 2008/09 was the result of a temporary and partial freeze on monograph purchasing imposed because of the significant decline in the value of the Canadian dollar in the fall of 2008, and the consequent drop in the Library’s purchasing power. The freeze was lifted in May 2009.
What appears to be a general decline in journal expenditures deserves comment (Table 1 provides further details). In recent years, there have been no cancellations of journals, but some journals previously paid for by the Germanic and Slavic library fund have been transferred to the Electronic Resources library fund. In fact, additional journals have been added to the Library’s collection as a result of purchasing publishers’ packages, often through consortia agreements.
Electronic resources, such as MLA International Bibliography, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts and JSTOR, are purchased from the Electronic Resources library fund. Materials acquired for other departments, such as English, Drama and Speech Communications, Film Studies, French Studies, History, Philosophy, and Sociology, are also of interest to German.
I believe that a high level support for the graduate programme in German has been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services. More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals purchased for German and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to German are available in the Library.
I would be pleased to discuss the Library's holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.
_Helena Calogeridis_
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian
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