The following is a summary of University of Waterloo Library information resources and services in support of the Pharmacy PhD Program.
The collections and services provided by the uWaterloo Library support a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs. With respect to the PhD program under review herein, material will be collected to support learning, teaching and research with emphasis on the following areas:
The decision to purchase Library materials for the Pharmacy PhD program is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian for Pharmacy in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection will be guided by a Collection Development Policy, which will be developed by the Liaison Librarian in consultation with faculty members in the School of Pharmacy. Materials are obtained in a variety of ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions.
The Library obtains resources in electronic format whenever possible and practical. Some electronic resources are obtained through membership in the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), and some are obtained directly by the uWaterloo Library. Access to and use of electronic resources is generally governed by licence agreements with the publisher or vendor.
Some key resources purchased for Pharmacy include the following:
The current journal collection was compared with the 2010 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) core list of 79 journals of specific interest to Pharmacy. Of these journals on the core list, 69 are available through the uWaterloo Library. Most have been acquired through purchase of electronic journal packages. Five have ceased publication and one is available via document delivery from the University of Guelph.
The Library’s collection was compared with the list of titles recommended for first purchase on the AACP's Basic Resources for Pharmacy Education, January 2012 edition. Of the 115 titles, 78 are in the Pharmacy collection, 16 more are available electronically, with 6 more print volumes at other uWaterloo library locations.
The 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. The University of Guelph’s collection supporting its Veterinary Science program is of specific interest to the School of Pharmacy and is likely to enhance the depth and breadth of local material available to support Pharmacy. Five additional titles from the AACP list are available at Guelph.
In addition to resources purchased specifically for Pharmacy, the Library subscribes to a variety of databases that would be of interest to the School of Pharmacy. These include the following:
The Library’s print collections for Pharmacy are housed in the Health Sciences Campus Learning Resource Centre (HSCLRC), which occupies 93 m2 on the foundation level of the School of Pharmacy building. The HSCLRC is maintained and managed by the School of Pharmacy and provides open study spaces and carrels, as well as group study rooms for students.
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.lib.uwaterloo.ca).
The Library's automated circulation system allows users to charge out materials during the hours that the Library or HSCLRC is open and to renew items online any time. Except for 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 uWaterloo Library locations, and from the libraries of the uWaterloo-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 uWaterloo Libraries’ circulation desks or at the HSCLRC. Books and journal articles not owned by the uWaterloo 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 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 print 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.
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 uWaterloo faculty, students and staff, as well as Web 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 uWaterloo community through the Library's participation in consortia purchasing through OCUL.
In addition, many of the Library’s 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 uWaterloo Library full-text electronic journal subscription or to the catalogue record for holdings and call number information. The Library also provides access to RefWorks, bibliographic management software.
uWaterloo 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. In addition, the Pharmacy building has wireless Internet access, allowing students, faculty and staff to access electronic resources from anywhere in the building.
Also available to members of the uWaterloo academic community are the data holdings of <odesi>, OCUL’s digital repository for social science data (http://odesi.ca). <odesi> provides web access to resources such as the Statistics Canada surveys and datasets, including the Canadian Census, through the Library’s membership in the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) and Canadian public opinion polls.
Access is also available to the data holdings of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/).
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 uWaterloo 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 Literacy: Research Skills, Critical Appraisal, Ethical Use
Drawing from the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents’ Guidelines for University Graduate Degree Level Expectations and the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, the Liaison Librarians develop information literacy-related activities and materials, in consultation with faculty. These may include the development of online modules, research guides and screencasts as well as seminars and outcomes-based workshops for students in the program. These sessions support graduate students completing their literature reviews, comprehensives and graduate information research endeavours as part of their degree requirements and complement faculty mentoring in the same areas
Reference/research assistance is available in person or by telephone, e-mail, and on-line chat (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/asklib/index.html). Graduate students are kept informed of new developments in the Library through 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.
Since fiscal 2007/08 approximately $150,000 has been spent annually for Pharmacy information resources. Most of the expenditures have been used for subscriptions to online resources.
It is important to note that in addition to resources purchased specifically for Pharmacy, resources purchased for other graduate programs will also support Pharmacy. These graduate programs include those in the uWaterloo Departments of Biology, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Health Studies and Gerontology, and Kinesiology, as well as in the School of Optometry.
Prepared by Angela Madden, Pharmacy Librarian, in consultation with Jennifer Haas, Head of Information Services and Resources, Davis.
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Services and Resources for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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