The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in Religious Studies that are available to support a Master’s program in Theological Studies. This summary has been prepared by Christine Jewell, Liaison Librarian for Religious Studies. The Conrad Grebel Library information included in this summary was provided by Sam Steiner, Librarian, Conrad Grebel University College.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the PhD level in the area of religious diversity of North America and to the honours undergraduate level in Religious Studies with emphasis on:
The decision to purchase Library materials for Religious Studies is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policy which is developed by the Liaison Librarian in consultation with faculty members in the department of Religious Studies. Materials are obtained in a variety of 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.
The UW Library collection includes approximately 52 current print serials in general subject areas of possible interest to Religious Studies. Students and faculty in the UW community also have access to 87 electronic serials (some of these are available in both electronic and print). Many of the electronic serials are paid from the central Electronic Resources library fund. The Religious Studies library fund supports the cost of 47 current serials subscriptions. The UW Library collection also includes approximately 38,421 monographs in subject areas of interest to Religious Studies. 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 Religious Studies. The TUG Collections provide our faculty and students access to an additional 79,968 monographs and 142 current print serials.
The collection from Wilfrid Laurier University is of particular relevance for its support of the joint Waterloo/Laurier PhD in the area of religious diversity of North America. The Wilfrid Laurier Library collects material to support teaching and research to the master’s and doctoral levels in religion & culture and theology.
Conrad Grebel University College, St. Jerome’s University, and Renison College are affiliated with the University of Waterloo. Located on the main Waterloo campus, these institutions each administer a library collection of significant value to members of the Waterloo community, particularly to students and researchers in Religious Studies. These library collections are fully integrated into the library system of the Tri-University Group (TUG).
The Masters in Theological Studies program is administered by the Conrad Grebel University College. The Conrad Grebel Library collection has a specialized focus on Christian and Mennonite resources. The College has an archival centre that focuses on Mennonites in Ontario. These resources and the services of the archivist are available for specialized research in this area of Mennonite Studies.
The UW 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 Religious Studies:
The Library’s print collections for Religious Studies are housed primarily in the Dana Porter Library. Access to the entire Library collection, as well as materials held by UG, WLU, CGC, and STJ, 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 materials in the Library’s collection circulate. Graduate students and faculty 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, graduate 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, staff and students within three working days. The cost is of these services is absorbed by the Library.
In partnership with UG and WLU, the UW 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, staff and students within three working days. The cost is absorbed by the Library
In addition to the forgoing services, 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.
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 faculty, students and staff at UW and the affiliated and federated colleges and universities, as well as Internet resources freely available to anyone. The site includes links to selected electronic resources available to the UW community through the Library's participation in the OCUL Scholars Portal program (http://www.scholarsportal.info/index.html). In addition, many of our electronic resources can be found through a search of Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/ ) and Windows Live Academic (http://academic.live.com/).
The Library has embedded linking technology (SFX) into research databases which allows users to link directly from the database 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.
Members of the UW community may access electronic research databases and full text electronic journals from off-campus via the Library’s Proxy Server / Connect from Home feature.
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 or available via document delivery from the University of Guelph or Wilfrid Laurier University. Faculty and graduate students are able to search 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 students, faculty and staff from across the country. Graduate students, faculty and staff are entitled to borrowing privileges at participating libraries (http://www.coppul.ca/rb/rbindex.html).
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 students, faculty 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).
UW campus libraries also offer 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 Religious 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.
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 Religious Studies (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/
religious/index.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.
In a 2006 University of Waterloo Library User Satisfaction Survey, 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 Religious Studies UW Library fund has spent $206,499 on information resources. In 2005/06, $5,538 was spent for current serials and $24,004 for books. The following tables provide details of UW Library expenditures for Religious Studies.
TABLE 1
UW Library Summary of Expenditures in Religious Studies |
||||
Year |
Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
1999/00 |
7,128 |
5,025 |
20,581 |
32,734 |
2000/01 |
4,947 |
5,350 |
22,590 |
32,887 |
2001/02 |
5,956 |
4,370 |
16,831 |
27,158 |
2002/03 |
7,516 |
4,768 |
16,501 |
28,785 |
2003/04 |
6,305 |
6,475 |
15,148 |
27,928 |
2004/05 |
5,930 |
5,263 |
16,271 |
27,464 |
2005/06 |
5,538 |
4,377 |
19,627 |
29,543 |
TOTAL |
43,320 |
35,629 |
127,550 |
206,499 |
What appears to be a general decline in serials expenditures over time deserves comment. In recent years there have been no cancellations of serials, but some current serials paid for by the Religious Studies library fund have been transferred to the Electronic Resources library fund. In fact, additional serials have been added to the Library’s collection as a result of various consortial agreements and database vendor packages.
It should be noted that materials acquired for other departments such as Philosophy and Classical Studies are also of interest to Religious Studies.
The following tables provide details of Conrad Grebel Library expenditures for Religious Studies and Anabaptist/Mennonite resources.
TABLE 2
Religious Studies Budget at Conrad Grebel Library |
|||||
Year |
Monographs |
Serials |
Total R.S. |
Total Library |
% R.S. |
2006/07 |
$6,000 |
$2,500 |
$8,500 |
$32,300 |
26.32% |
2005/06 |
$5,000 |
$2,500 |
$7,500 |
$32,300 |
23.22% |
2004/05 |
$4,000 |
$3,500 |
$7,500 |
$31,775 |
23.60% |
2003/04 |
$3,600 |
$1,700 |
$5,300 |
$24,950 |
21.24% |
2002/03 |
$3,600 |
$2,000 |
$5,600 |
$25,225 |
22.20% |
2001/02 |
$2,100 |
$1,200 |
$3,300 |
$24,800 |
13.31% |
2000/01 |
$2,200 |
$1,225 |
$3,425 |
$24,775 |
13.82% |
1999/00 |
$1,830 |
$1,130 |
$2,960 |
$24,775 |
11.95% |
TABLE 3
Anabaptist/Mennonite Library Budget at Conrad Grebel Library |
|||||
Year |
Monographs |
Serials |
Total A/M |
Total Library |
% R.S. |
2006/07 |
$9,000 |
$2,800 |
$11,800 |
$32,300 |
36.53% |
2005/06 |
$9,000 |
$2,500 |
$11,500 |
$32,300 |
35.60% |
2004/05 |
$8,500 |
$2,500 |
$11,000 |
$31,775 |
34.62% |
2003/04 |
$6,500 |
$2,350 |
$8,850 |
$24,950 |
35.47% |
2002/03 |
$5,740 |
$2,300 |
$8,040 |
$25,225 |
31.87% |
2001/02 |
$5,400 |
$3,000 |
$8,400 |
$24,800 |
33.87% |
2000/01 |
$5,400 |
$2,750 |
$8,150 |
$24,775 |
32.90% |
1999/00 |
$5,325 |
$2,470 |
$7,795 |
$24,775 |
31.46% |
More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals purchased for Religious Studies and the Religious Studies Collection Development Policy are available in the UW Library.
Sam Steiner and I would be pleased to discuss the holdings and services of the UW Library and the Conrad Grebel Library with appraisers at the time of a campus visit. We believe that there is strong library support for a graduate programme in Theological Studies available to the UW community, both in information resources and services.
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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