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Information Resources Management Committee

Report for the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies on Library Resources for the proposed Master of Public Service Degree Program
February 2009

The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in support of the proposed Master of Public Service degree program, prepared by Jane Forgay, Liaison Librarian for Political Science.

Information Resources

Material would be collected to support learning, teaching and research to the master’s level in Public Serves with emphasis on the following areas.  These areas already receive a high level of library support for existing programs including Political Science, Accounting and Finance, Philosophy, Psychology, and Speech Communication.

The decision to purchase Library materials for the Master of Public Service would be the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian for Political Science in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Materials would be 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. Access to and use of electronic resources is generally governed by licence agreements with the publisher or vendor.

Journals and Monographs

The UW Library collection includes approximately 2,300 current electronic and print journals and approximately 9,000 monographs (i.e., books, reports, and many government documents) relating to the study of public service including public administration, public finance, and the civil service are held by the UW Library.  For the most part, the monographs are in print 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), form 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 scholars involved in the Master of Public Service program.

The University of Waterloo has depository status for Canadian federal and Ontario provincial government publications and we selectively acquire Canadian regional and municipal documents.  This extensive collection provides scholars with an opportunity to study political processes and documentation methods across various levels of government. Also available to members of the UW academic community are the holdings of the Tri-University Group Data Resources (http://tdr.tug-libraries.on.ca/), which provide Web access to resources such as Statistics Canada surveys, including the Canadian Census, and to the data holdings of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

 UW Library has purchased or subscribes to a range of electronic resources including research databases, full text journals, and monographs.   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 databases that would be of particular interest to the Master of Public Service degree program:

For information regarding the expenditures for these databases, please refer to the Financial Support section of this report.  

Services

Access to Print Collections

The Library’s print collections that would be of interest to students in the Public Service program are housed primarily in the Dana Porter 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.  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 “Connect from Home” feature.

Access to Resources from Institutions other than TUG

The Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery 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 interlibrary loan requests. 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).

Research Services

The Liaison Librarian for Political Science is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. She 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.

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.

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”.

Financial Support

Unless additional funding is made available to the UW Library for materials specifically for the Master of Public Service degree program, the Library support for this program will come from existing allocations for Political Science materials. During the past seven years, the Political Science library fund has spent CND $686,953 on information resources.

Table 1.
Summary of UW Library expenditures supporting Political Science over the last 7 years.

Fiscal Year

Serial Expenditure

Book Expenditure

Approval Support

Total Expenditure & Support

2001/02

$49,206

$13,929

$56,970

$120,105

2002/03

$56,439

$13,296

$55,355

$125,090

2003/04

$57,451

$15,916

$44,638

$118,005

2004/05

$20,756

$15,112

$41,896

$77,765

2005/06

$19,910

$15,096

$43,845

$78,852

2006/07

$19,544

$16,254

$50,783

$86,580

2007/08

$18,011

$14,910

$47,635

$80,556

2001/02 through 2007/08

$241,318

 

$104,513

 

$341,122

 CND $686,953.39

What appears to be a general decline in journal expenditures deserves comment.  In recent years, there have been no cancellations of journals, but many journals previously paid for by the Political Science library fund have been transferred to the Electronic Resources fund.  In fact, additional journals have been added to the Library’s collection as a result of purchasing publishers’ packages, often through consortia agreements.  The Electronic Resources fund also pays for the subscriptions to the databases listed on page 2 of this report.  In the last fiscal year, this coverage amounted to approximately CND $124,000. This figure is not included in the $686,953. in Table 1.

Conclusion

I believe the UW Library would be able to offer a strong level of support for the Master of Public Service degree program.

More detailed information including lists of journals and monograph counts that relate to this program 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.

Jane Forgay, Liaison Librarian for Political Science

Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.

Information Resources Management Committee
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March 4, 2009