The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in support of the undergraduate program in Geography prepared by Margaret Yuen, Liaison Librarian for Geography.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the PhD level in Geography with emphasis on:
The decision to purchase Library materials for Geography is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policy, (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/geography_coll_policy_06.doc) which is developed by the Liaison Librarian in consultation with faculty members in the Department of Geography. Materials are obtained in a variety ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions.
The UW Library collection includes approximately 594 current electronic and print serials in subject areas of possible interest to Geography. Many of the electronic serials are paid from the central Electronic Resources library fund. The Geography library fund supports the cost of 98 current serials subscriptions relating to Geography. The collection also includes approximately 49,200 monographs in subject areas of interest to Geography. 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 UG and WLU enhance the depth and breadth of local materials available in subject areas of interest to Geography. The life sciences collection at the University of Guelph is of particular interest to Geography.
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.
A number of special collections of interest to Geography are housed in the Doris Lewis Rare Books Room in the Dana Porter Library, and the Rare Book Room in the Musagetes Architecture Library. Collections include the archives of the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain; the Walter Bean Grand River Community Trails Foundation fonds; the William Dendy Library, which includes the papers and book collection of the well known Canadian architectural historian; and the Rosa Breithaupt Clark Architectural Collection, a collection rich in local history, urban planning and architecture.
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 Geography:
Cartographic material in both paper and digital format is available in the University Map Library. The collection consists of digital geospatial data, electronic maps and atlases, and aerial photographs in digital and print formats. The collection also includes 70,000 print maps and 40,000 aerial photographs. The digital collection focuses on the local area but also includes world wide datasets. More specifically, coverage includes national and provincial-level topographic data; elevation data; Canadian street data; Grand River Conservation Authority data; and orthoimagery for the local area including the GTA, and South western Ontario.
Also available to members of the UW academic community are the data holdings of the Tri-University Data Resources (TDR) (http://tdr.tug-libraries.on.ca/) which provides 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/).
The Library’s print collections for Geography are housed primarily in the Dana Porter Library for the social sciences and humanities, and the Davis Centre Library for the sciences and engineering. Access to the entire Library collection, as well as materials held by UG and WLU, is available through the Web accessible union catalogue known as TRELLIS (http://trellis1.tug-libraries.on.ca/).
The Dana Porter Library is typically open Monday to Friday from 8am to 11pm and Saturday and Sundays from 11am to 11pm. During exam periods this library is open daily from 8am to 2am. The Davis Centre Library is usually open Monday to Friday from 8am to midnight and Saturday and Sundays from 11am to midnight. During exam periods the Davis Centre library is open 24 hours except between 2am to 8am on Sundays. There are some closures between terms and during the Christmas break.
The Dana Porter Library and the Davis Centre Library has 1267 and 955 study spaces respectively. Both libraries are wireless to accommodate the students’ own laptops. There are approximately 95 public workstations in Dana Porter Library and 80 public workstations in the Davis Centre Library, each connected to the Library’s networked printing system.
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 anytime. With the exception reference materials, most of the materials in the Library’s collection circulate. Undergraduate students may borrow monographs for two weeks at a time and journals for 3 days at a time.
Undergraduate students can request copies of print journal articles from the other TUG libraries and can place holds at any of these libraries for pickup at any of the UW libraries’ circulation desks. These requests may be made 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 may be 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, 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 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/ ) 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, RefWorks.
Members of the UW community may access licensed 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 students are able to search citations from over 17,000 journals in all subject areas and directly request copies of articles. Articles for undergraduates are generally delivered to the UW Libraries 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. Undergraduate students are entitled to borrowing privileges at most participating libraries. Complete information is available at 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 libraries also offer general orientation programs including tours, workshops on database searching and using the Web. In addition, each fall the Library participates in a campus-wide orientation program for international students.
The Liaison Librarian for Geography is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. 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 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 Geography, (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/geog/index.html).
UW patrons 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.
In a 2006 University of Waterloo Library User Satisfaction Survey, 79% of the undergraduate students responding to the survey indicated that they agreed with the statement the “Overall, the UW Library and its staff meet my expectations for an excellent university library”.
During the past seven years, the Geography library fund has spent $493,545 on information resources. In 2005/06 $18,462 was spent for current serials and $21,033 for books. Table 1 provides further details. What appears to be a general decline in serials expenditures over time and a sharp decline in serials expenditures in 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.
Electronic resources such as Web of Science and Applied Geography are purchased from the general fund. It should be noted that materials acquired for other departments such as Biology, Earth Sciences, Environment and Resource Studies, and Planning are also of interest to Geography.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures– Geography
Year |
Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
1999/00 |
79,225 |
13,365 |
10,007 |
102,597 |
2000/01 |
65,850 |
17,000 |
10,921 |
93,771 |
2001/02 |
51,799 |
16,136 |
10,130 |
78,065 |
2002/03 |
46,078 |
9,909 |
10,576 |
66,563 |
2003/04 |
41,112 |
16,645 |
10,116 |
67,873 |
2004/05 |
18,696 |
16,852 |
9,633 |
45,181 |
2005/06 |
18,462 |
13,168 |
7,865 |
39,495 |
TOTAL |
$321,222 |
$103,075 |
$69,248 |
$493,545 |
I believe that a high level support for the undergraduate programme in Geography has been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services. More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals purchased for Geography and the numbers of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to Geography are available in the Library.
I would be pleased to discuss the Library’s holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.
Prepared by Margaret Yuen, Liaison Librarian for Geography
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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