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Information Resources Management Committee

Report for the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies on Library Resources for Religious Studies
April 2010

The following is a summary of Library information resources and services in support of the Joint (University of Waterloo (UW) and Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU)) PhD program in religious studies, prepared by Sandra Keys, UW Liaison Librarian for Religious Studies and Diane Peters, WLU Reference Collections Librarian for Religion and Culture and for Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.

Information Resources

Collections Support

Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the PhD level in religious studies with emphasis on religious diversity in North America. The program has three facets: North American focus, Multidisciplinary Theories and Methods, and Public Intelligibility.

As part of the TriUniversity Group (TUG) of libraries (which includes the holdings of UW, WLU, and the University of Guelph, and several other affiliated institutions), all faculty, students, and staff at UW and WLU have ready access, through common lending and material delivery policies, to print collections that number around 8.5 million items. Through Primo, a web-based discovery tool, users can search items and request from partner libraries. Faculty and students who are part of the joint PhD religious studies program are eligible to access electronic collections remotely that are subscribed to by either WLU or UW.

At both the UW and WLU Libraries, the decision to purchase Library materials for religious studies is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarians in consultation with the Faculty Library Representatives. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policies (available upon request) which are developed by the Liaison Librarians in consultation with faculty members in the department of Religious Studies (UW) and Religion and Culture (WLU). 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 UW and/or  WLU libraries 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.

Monographs

The TUG Libraries and UW’s Federated university and affiliated colleges have approximately 139,000 print monographs for Religious Studies. Table 1 shows counts at each site.

Table 1. Print Monograph Counts for TUG Libraries as of March 2010:

 

UW Library

UW Federated university and affiliated colleges

WLU

UG

Total

Monographs

38,041

24,885

57,015

18,793

138,734

 For the most part, monographs are purchased in print format, but an increasing number are in electronic format.

At UW, monographs for the Religious Studies program are purchased using UW Library funds by Religious Studies, as well as the Federated university and affiliated colleges. Additionally, monographs of potential interest in other subject areas, most notably Sociology, are purchased using funds allocated for those subjects. Table 2 lists UW’s expenditures for monographs purchased by the Religious Studies fund each year.

At WLU, monographs for religious studies are purchased by Religion and Culture. Some monographs relevant to religious studies are also purchased through Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. Over the past two years, over $58,000 worth of books purchased for the library collection potentially has relevance to the religious studies program. Table 3 lists WLU’s budgeted amounts for monographs purchased by the Religion and Culture fund each year. 

Journals

Many journals are now part of full-text electronic packages, such as ATLA Serials, JSTOR, and Project Muse, and are funded through a central electronic resources library fund at each University Library.

The UW Library Religious Studies fund supports approximately an additional 30 journals. Further journals of interest are supported by other subject funds. A list of journal titles is available on request.

The WLU Religion and Culture fund supports an additional 24 journals, while further journals of interest are supported by other subject funds. A list of journal titles is available on request.

Electronic Resources

The Libraries have purchased or subscribe to a range of electronic resources including research databases/journal indexes, full-text journals, monographs, numeric data, and government publications. In addition,  librarians identify and provide access to select material freely available through the Internet, including open access journals, catalogues of libraries around the world, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and style guides.

The following are some of the research databases of particular interest to religious studies:

Religious Studies

Social Sciences, Sociology, Humanities, etc.

Additionally, both Libraries subscribe to numerous databases in virtually all subject areas which could be of potential interest to those involved in the joint PhD program, depending on their topic area.

Statistics and Numeric Data

Also available to members of the UW and WLU academic communities are the data holdings of the TriUniversity Group Data Resources (TDR) (http://nesstar.tdr.uoguelph.ca/webview/index.jsp) and <odesi> (http://search2.odesi.ca/), which provide Web access to resources such as the Statistics Canada surveys, including the Canadian Census. Access is also available to the data holdings of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/).

Access to Resources

The UW and WLU Libraries have a number of services to facilitate searching, access, and information management:

Access to Resources beyond TUG

Interlibrary loan/document delivery (ILL) services provides faculty, students and staff with books, copies of journal articles, theses, and government documents from libraries within Canada and elsewhere. The UW and WLU Libraries use OCUL’s RACER web-based interlibrary loan system (http://racer.scholarsportal.info) to facilitate ILL access and service for users. With minor exceptions, the cost for this service is absorbed by the Libraries.

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

The UW and the WLU Liaison Librarians are available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. They 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.

Reference assistance is available in person or by telephone at both universities’ Library Information Desks, which are staffed by professional librarians and specially trained Library Associates. Alternatively, faculty, students, and staff at each institution may get reference assistance via e-mail and on-line chat available through the UW Ask a Librarian service (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/asklib/index.html) and the WLU Ask Us service (http://library.wlu.ca/askus).

Both university Libraries offer general orientation programs including tours, workshops on database searching and using the web, and seminars for graduate students.  In addition, each fall, the Libraries participate in campus-wide orientation programs with other service areas.

Graduate students may keep abreast of new services and developments in the UW Library by reading news @ your library (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/), an electronic newsletter prepared periodically and sent to graduate students via the UW University’s Graduate Studies listserv. WLU presents news and events on the Library web site (http://library.wlu.ca/).  

Financial Support

During the past seven years, the UW Religious Studies Library fund has spent approximately $98,000 on books and journals. In 2008/09, approximately $6,000 was spent for current journals and $16,000 for books. Table 2 provides further details.

Table 2. Summary of Expenditures– Religious Studies (University of Waterloo)

Year

SerialExpenditures

Book Expenditures

Approval
Plan Support

Total Expenditures & Support

2002/03

$7,515

$4,770

$16,500

$28,785

2003/04

$6,305

$6,475

$15,150

$27,930

2004/05

$5,930

$5,265

$16,270

$27,465

2005/06

$5,540

$4,375

$19,625

$29,545

2006/07

$6,555

$6,245

$17,515

$30,315

2007/08

$8,925

$1,695

$20,990

$31,610

2008/09

$6,055

$775

$15,390

$22,225

TOTAL

$46,830

$29,600

$121,440

$197,870

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 2 provides further details).  In recent years, there have been no cancellations of journals, but many journals previously paid for by the Religious Studies 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.

Over the past seven years, acquisition funding in direct support of monographs for Religion and Culture programs at WLU has averaged $22,172. Table 3 lists the expenditures for each year. Please note that the decrease in print book expenditures is in part a reflection of the increasing number of electronic books purchased.

Table 3. Book budget allocations for the Department of Religion and Culture and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Year

Department ofReligion and Culture

Waterloo LutheranSeminary

Total

2003/04

$23,495

$13,300

$36,795

2004/05

$23,495

$12,099

$35,594

2005/06

$17,895

$17,200

$35,095

2006/07

$27,000

$13,000

$40,000

2007/08

$26,000

$15,077

$41,077

2008/09

$21,270

$13,000

$34,270

2009/10

$16,050

$12,000

$28,050

TOTAL

$46,830

$29,600

$76,430

Conclusion

Overall, strong support for the joint PhD in religious studies has been provided by the UW and WLU Libraries, both in information resources and services. 

More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals that benefit the joint PhD in religious studies and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to the program are available through the Liaison Librarians.

In addition, Liaison Librarians and University Librarians would be pleased to discuss the Libraries' holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.  

Submitted by:

Sandra Keys, UW Liaison Librarian for Religious Studies
Diane Peters, WLU Reference/Collections Librarian for Religion and Culture

Reviewed by:

Sharon Brown, the WLU University Librarian and Carol Stephenson, Head of Collections & Acquisitions at WLU
Susan Routliffe, UW Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, UW University Librarian

Information Resources Management Committee
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June 1, 2010