The following is a summary of University of Waterloo Library and St Jerome’s University (STJ) Library information resources and services in support of the undergraduate program in Medieval Studies, prepared by Christine Jewell, uWaterloo Liaison Librarian for Classical Studies and Lorna Rourke, St. Jerome’s University Librarian.
The Medieval Studies program is co-sponsored by St. Jerome's University and the University of Waterloo and is supported by the humanities academic departments of the two institutions. The program is currently housed, at St. Jerome's, in the Department of History, and, at Waterloo, in the Department of Classical Studies.
St. Jerome’s University is federated with the University of Waterloo. These institutions each administer a library collection of significant value to students and researchers in Medieval Studies.
Because Medieval Studies is interdisciplinary, it is supported by collections developed for a number of disciplines, including Classical Studies, English, Fine Arts, History, Latin, Modern European Languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), Music, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.
The decision to purchase Library materials for the Medieval Studies program is the joint responsibility of Christine Jewell and Lorna Rourke, in consultation with the co-directors of the Medieval Studies program. Materials are obtained in a variety of ways including firm orders, open orders, approval plans, and subscriptions.
Resources are obtained in electronic format whenever it is possible and practical to do so. Some electronic resources are obtained directly 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.
The uWaterloo 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 Medieval Studies. The St. Jerome’s Library collection is fully integrated into the library system of the Tri-University Group (TUG).
The uWaterloo Library’s print collections for Medieval Studies are housed primarily in the Dana Porter Library. The STJ Library print collections for Medieval Studies are housed in the STJ Library. Access to these collections, as well as materials held by UG and WLU, is available through the Web accessible search tool known as Primo (http://primo.lib.uwaterloo.ca/).
Books and journal articles not owned by the uWaterloo Library or the STJ Library but held by UG or WLU may be requested for use by uWaterloo and STJ students, faculty, and staff. Books and copies of journal articles are delivered within three working days. The cost of these services is absorbed by the uWaterloo Library.
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 material in the Library’s collection circulates. Faculty, graduate students and staff may borrow most monographs for a term at a time. The usual loan period for undergraduates is two weeks.
In partnership with UG and WLU, the uWaterloo 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, the TUG libraries ensure that a last copy is maintained in perpetuity, through the Preservation of Last Copy Agreement . As with material from UG and WLU, books and copies of journal articles housed in the Annex are made available to faculty, students and staff within three working days. The cost of these services is absorbed by the uWaterloo Library.
The primary tool for accessing electronic resources selected by the uWaterloo Library is its Web site (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca). This site organizes and provides access to licensed resources available to only uWaterloo and STJ faculty, students and staff, as well as select Internet resources freely available to anyone. The site also provides access to electronic resources hosted by the OCUL Scholars Portal program (http://www.scholarsportal.info/index.html) and available to the community through the uWaterloo Library's participation in consortia purchasing through OCUL.
In addition, many of our electronic resources can be found through a search of Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/).
Linking technology (SFX) is used to enable users to link directly from research databases to the full text electronic journal subscription or to the catalogue record for holdings and call number information. The uWaterloo Library also provides access to bibliographic management software (RefWorks).
uWaterloo and STJ 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 uWaterloo Library has purchased, or subscribes to, a range of electronic resources including research databases, full text journals, monographs, numeric data, and government publications. The uWaterloo Library and the STJ Library cooperate to fund access to particularly important resources, for example, the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB). In addition, select material freely available through the Internet is identified. 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 Medieval Studies:
The Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery (ILL) service provides uWaterloo and STJ faculty, students and staff with books, copies of journal articles, theses, and government documents from libraries within Canada and elsewhere. The 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.
Most Canadian university libraries extend, at no charge, 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).
Drawing from the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents’ Guidelines for University Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations and the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education the uWaterloo Liaison Librarian for Medieval Studies develops information literacy-related activities and materials, in consultation with faculty. These include the development of online modules, research guides and screencasts as well as the preparation of classroom sessions and outcomes-based workshops for students in the program. It is intended that the sessions and workshops may complement, or take the form of, assignments students complete as part of their course requirements. Depending on the nature of the assignments and the instructors’ expectations, these activities focus on introducing, reinforcing, or mastering key aspects of information research.
The uWaterloo Liaison Librarian for Medieval Studies and the STJ librarian 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 uWaterloo Librarian also develops and maintains an online subject guide for Medieval Studies http://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/medievalstudies.
Reference assistance is available in person or by telephone at the uWaterloo Library and STJ Library Information Desks, which are staffed by professional librarians and specially trained library associates. Alternatively, uWaterloo and STJ faculty, students and staff may get reference assistance via e-mail and online chat available through the Ask a Librarian service (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/asklib/index.html).
The uWaterloo Library also offers general orientation programs including tours, workshops on research skills, and seminars for students. In addition, each fall, the Library participates in a campus-wide orientation program for incoming students, including programs specific to international students and students with disabilities.
Faculty, students and staff may keep abreast of new services and developments in the uWaterloo Library by reading news @ your library (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/), an electronic newsletter prepared periodically.
Medieval Studies, an interdisciplinary program, is not assigned an individual fund. Collection development policies for the STJ Library and a range of uWaterloo Library collections support teaching and research in Medieval Studies. As well, the uWaterloo Library supports a Medieval Studies approval plan. From 2008/09 to 2010/11, this approval plan provided a total of $16,380 in support of Medieval Studies.
Summary of uWaterloo Library Approval Expenditures – Medieval Studies
Fiscal Year |
Approval |
|---|---|
2008/2009 |
$4,870 |
2009/2010 |
$6,745 |
2010/2011 |
$4,770 |
Total |
$16,380 |
Conclusion
We believe that a high level of support for the undergraduate program in Medieval Studies has been provided by the UW and STJ Libraries, both in information resources and services.
More detailed information including lists of print and electronic journals relevant to Medieval Studies and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to Medieval Studies can be provided if required.
We would be pleased to discuss the STJ Library’s and the uWaterloo Library's holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.
Christine Jewell, uWaterloo Liaison Librarian for Medieval Studies
Lorna Rourke, St. Jerome’s University Librarian
Reviewed by Susan Routliffe, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Services for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
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