The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in support of the collaborative graduate program in Nanotechnology, prepared by Douglas Morton, Liaison Librarian for Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering.
This is a first report at the grad level for this program so there is not a lot of historical data to present.
The nanotechnology program is offered collaboratively by the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering and Systems Design Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, and the Biology, Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy Departments in the Faculty of Science; researchers from other departments and groups such as IQC, Pharmacy and Applied Math also participate. As budgets permit, materials are collected to support learning, teaching and research to the Masters and PhD level in areas such as
The decision to purchase Library materials is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian for each academic department 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. Materials are obtained in a variety ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions. As nanotechnology is not 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 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 over 40 current print and ejournals of possible direct interest to nanotechnology. The library currently subscribes to over 275 print journals in all engineering areas, over 330 in all science areas and there are over 17,000 ejournals in all subject areas in the library. The collection also includes over 330 monographs in subject areas directly of interest to nanotechnology and over 70,000 in all engineering areas and over 144,000 in all science areas. 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 nanotechnology such as agriculture, business, and the environment.
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 nanotechnology:
Access to Print Collections
The Library’s print collections for nanotechnology are housed primarily in the Davis Centre 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 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 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 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.
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 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/ ).
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.
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 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).
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 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 Librarians for each department are available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. He or 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 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 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 Science and Engineering library funds have spent $6,178,950 on information resources. Tables 1 and 2 provide further details.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures – Engineering
Year |
Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2001/02 |
$327,483 |
$117,451 |
$46,932 |
$491,866 |
2002/03 |
$257,227 |
$111,861 |
$43,415 |
$412,503 |
2003/04 |
$250,655 |
$104,814 |
$39,572 |
$395,041 |
2004/05 |
$137,727 |
$96,317 |
$56,219 |
$290,263 |
2005/06 |
$146,563 |
$124,004 |
$55,748 |
$326,315 |
2006/07 |
$148,734 |
$92,195 |
$60,374 |
$301,303 |
2007/08 |
$137,153 |
$95,261 |
$61,297 |
$293,711 |
TOTAL |
$1,405,542 |
$741,903 |
$363,557 |
$2,511,002 |
Table 2. Summary of Expenditures – Science
Year |
Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2001/02 |
$564,915 |
$99,128 |
$26,143 |
$690,186 |
2002/03 |
$509,287 |
$111,681 |
$25,630 |
$646,598 |
2003/04 |
$449,077 |
$123,214 |
$25,756 |
$598,047 |
2004/05 |
$312,459 |
$110,114 |
$19,140 |
$441,713 |
2005/06 |
$302,882 |
$132,701 |
$22,626 |
$458,209 |
2006/07 |
$321,493 |
$97,313 |
$23,783 |
$442,589 |
2007/08 |
$275,923 |
$92,019 |
$22,664 |
$390,606 |
TOTAL |
$2,736,036 |
$766,170 |
$165,742 |
$3,667,948 |
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.
Electronic resources such as Scopus and ISI’s Web of Science are purchased from the general fund. It should also be noted that materials acquired for other departments in the Faculties of Engineering, Mathematics and Science are also of interest to nanotechnology.
More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals relating to nanotechnology and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to nanotechnology are available in the Library.
Publishers of standards (such as SAE) and handbooks (such as those from CRC’s ENGnetBASE) in electronic form charge subscription and ongoing access fees that exceed the capabilities of our budget. Similarly, while Engineering and Science have definitely benefited from consortial and block purchases of ejournals a growing number of desirable publications (such as so –called “digital libraries” like the AIAA or the Conferences of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers – both current and archives) are coming onto the market that will need money on an ongoing basis. To date, we have been able to meet the majority of our user’s needs quite well. However, the Library’s current acquisitions budget is not sufficient to cover the cost of new resources such as those listed here.
As noted above, materials are selected by Liaison Librarians for each department and paid for from library departmental budgets as appropriate. At present we do not have a separate budget for nanotechnology; material purchased in support of nanotechnology 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 nanotechnology has been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services. An increase to the Library’s Acquisition budget would be needed to further enrich the collection in order to provide a higher level of support for the Collaborative Graduate Program in Nanotechnology.
Prepared by Douglas Morton, Liaison Librarian for Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering and Chemistry (acting); reviewed by:
Anne Fullerton, Liaison Librarian for Biology & Chemical Engineering,
Laura Howell, Liaison Librarian for Physics & Astronomy and Mathematics
Leeanne Romane, Liaison Librarian for Electrical & Computer Engineering
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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