April 14, 2005
The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library resources in support of a Masters in Public Health program at Waterloo, prepared by Carol Stephenson, Liaison Librarian for Health Studies and Gerontology.
Material will be collected to support teaching and research to the Masters level in Public Health, including the specializations of environmental and socio-behavioral aspects of public health.
The decision to purchase Library materials will be the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian for Health Studies and Gerontology in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Materials acquired for other departments such as Biology, Psychology, Civil Engineering, and the anticipated School of Pharmacy will be of value to this program. In addition, general library funds will pay for electronic research indexes, reference materials, and full text electronic journals packages.
Libraries at UW, University of Guelph (UG) and Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) compose the Tri-University Group of Libraries (TUG) consortium. Library resources at UG and WLU are readily accessible to UW students, faculty, and staff. These collections will enhance the depth and breadth of local materials available to support the program.
Collection Evaluation
The UW Library collection currently includes over 7,000 monograph materials in Public Health (Library of Congress classification RA). There are approximately 150 current electronic and print serials with the Library of Congress Public Health classification of RA.
TUG Libraries current serials collection was compared to 2 journal lists:
Of the 730 unique serial titles on these 2 lists, approximately 80% of the titles are readily available from TUG libraries or through the CISTI Source document supply service. Faculty identified 21 journal titles that will be purchased to support the program. The Canadian Journal of Public Health journal is one title that will be changed from print to online access, once available. Communications with the Canadian Public Health Association have indicated that full text online access to this journal is currently being investigated.
A list, produced by YBP Library services, of 111 “essential” public health monographs published in 2003 and 2004 was checked against TUG holdings. The list of titles is available at: http://www.ybp.com/acad/Essentials/
EssentialsFeb04.htm. 80% of the titles on this recommended list are already available at TUG libraries.
The UW Library subscribes to a number of Web accessible research databases and links to freely available, government funded databases. The following are some of the databases of interest to Public Health that are linked from the UW Library Research Databases Web page:
The Library has embedded linking technology into the 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.
UW faculty, students and staff may access Web accessible research databases and full text electronic journals from off-campus via the Library’s Proxy Server / Connect from Home feature.
The UW Library’s print collections in Public Health are housed in the Davis Centre Library. Access to the entire UW Library print and electronic collection, as well as materials held by UG and WLU partners, is available through the Web accessible union catalogue 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 and to renew items online. With the exception of reference materials and current issues of print journals, 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 provides a service for faculty, graduate students, and staff whereby copies of print journal articles are delivered to an on-campus address. Faculty, graduate students, and staff can also place holds on UW Library books for pickup at any of the UW Libraries’ circulation desks. Both these services are free of charge to the user.
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 absorbed by the Library.
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 abroad. The UW Library uses the 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://info.wlu.ca/~wwwlib/swetscan/) from the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information to provide copies of articles from journals not held locally. 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).
The Library has a well developed Web site (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca) that organizes and provides access to Internet resources, some freely available to anyone and others, funded by the Library, which are restricted to UW faculty, staff, and students. These resources include, for example, full text electronic journals, research databases, research guides arranged by academic discipline, catalogues of libraries around the world, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and style guides. A Web research guide for Public Health will be developed by the Liaison Librarian for Health Studies and Gerontology. Also available to members of the UW academic community are the data holdings of the Tri-University Group Data Resources (TDR) (http://tdr.tug-libraries.on.ca/). This data service provides Web access to sources such as the Canadian Census, Statistics Canada surveys, and the data holdings of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Library also subscribes to the CANSIM database from Statistics Canada. As a member of the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI), the Library is also able to make available other data from Statistics Canada, in addition to that data freely available on their website.
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 assistants. Alternatively, UW students, faculty and staff may use e-mail messaging options provided through the Ask a Librarian service (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/comments/) or contact the Liaison Librarian for Health Studies and Gerontology directly by phone or e-mail if a personal visit to the Library is not convenient.
The Liaison Librarian for Health Studies and Gerontology is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. The Liaison Librarian also works with faculty and staff to develop course integrated library instruction in the form of lecture, hands-on instruction, Web pages, or online courseware modules.
The Library also offers general orientation programs including tours, workshops on database searching and using the Web, and seminars for graduate students.
Students studying at a distance have access to the same circulation and information services as local learners. Once registered with the Library, (http://tug.lib.uwaterloo.ca/trellis/regist.html) students use the Library’s Proxy Server / Connect from Home feature to access research databases and full text electronic journals. All the research databases of interest to public health are Web accessible. Almost 90% of the current journals of interest to public health are Web accessible.
Needed print materials or materials that are not held by the UW Library are sent to the address supplied by the student. Copies of articles requested from TUG libraries, CISTI Source, or through RACER are delivered via fax or courier and may be kept by the student indefinitely. Books requested from TUG libraries or RACER are delivered via courier. The student is responsible for covering the cost of returning books and the use of courier is recommended. Students living near another Ontario University can also drop off the books at the local university library’s circulation desk. These books are returned free of charge via the Inter-University Transit Service.
We believe that a high level of support for the Masters program in Public Health will be provided by the Library, both in holdings and in services.
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