The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library information resources and services in support of the undergraduate programs in German and Russian, prepared by Helena Calogeridis, Liaison Librarian for Germanic and Slavic Studies.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the Masters (Russian) and PhD (German) level in German and Russian with emphasis on:
German
Russian
The decision to purchase Library materials for German and Russian is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policies (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/german_coll_policy_06.doc and http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/russian_coll_policy_06.doc) which are developed by the Liaison Librarian in consultation with faculty members in the department of Germanic and Slavic Studies. 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 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 500 current electronic and print serials in general subject areas of possible interest to German and Russian. Many of the electronic serials are paid from the central Electronic Resources library fund. The German and Russian library fund supports the cost of 157 current serials subscriptions relating to German and Russian. The collection also includes approximately 150,000 monographs in subject areas of interest to Germanic and Slavic 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 German and Russian.
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 German and Russian:
The Library’s print collections for German and Russian are housed in the Dana Porter 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 Dana Porter Library is typically open Monday to Friday from 8am to 11pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 11pm. During exam periods the library is open daily from 8am to 2am. There are some closures between terms and during the Christmas break. The Dana Porter Library has 1267 study spaces including carrels, larger tables, group study rooms, reading lounges on the 1st and 3rd floors, and seating at Browsers, the Library’s coffee shop. The entire Library is wireless to accommodate students’ own laptops and there are approximately 95 public workstations, 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 items in the Library’s collection circulate. Undergraduate students may borrow most monographs for two weeks at a time and journals for 3 days at a time.
Undergraduate students may request copies of print journal articles from the other TUG libraries and may place holds on books located 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. 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 RefWorks, 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.
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.
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 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 German and Russian is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. She/he 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 German and Russian (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/german/index.html).
Undergraduate 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.
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 that “Overall, the UW Library and its staff meet my expectations for an excellent university library”.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures
Year |
Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
1999/00 |
17,440 |
15,021 |
47,841 |
80,302 |
2000/01 |
18,643 |
17,272 |
47,322 |
83,237 |
2001/02 |
17,695 |
11,135 |
37,038 |
65,868 |
2002/03 |
21,261 |
16,822 |
42,490 |
80,573 |
2003/04 |
21,354 |
18,569 |
45,421 |
85,344 |
2004/05 |
16,796 |
15,860 |
47,175 |
79,831 |
2005/06 |
17,946 |
17,080 |
45,180 |
80,206 |
|
131,135 |
111,759 |
312,467 |
555,361 |
During the past seven years, the German and Russian library fund has spent $555,361 on information resources. In 2005/06, $17,946 was spent for current serials and $62,260 for books.
Electronic resources such as MLA International Bibliography, American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES), Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, and IBZ Online are purchased from the general fund. It should be noted that materials acquired for other departments such as English Language and Literature, Drama and Speech Communication, Film Studies, French Studies, History, Philosophy, and Sociology are also of interest to German and Russian.
I believe that high level support for the undergraduate programme in German and Russian has been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services. I would be pleased to discuss the Library's holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.
More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals purchased for German and Russian and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to German and Russian are available in the Library.
Prepared by Helena Calogeridis, Liaison Librarian for Germanic and Slavic Studies
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
May 2007
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