August 2006
The following is a summary of University of Waterloo (UW) Library resources in support of the undergraduate program in Planning at Waterloo, prepared by Margaret Yuen, Liaison Librarian for Planning.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research to the PhD level in Planning with emphasis on:
The decision to purchase Library materials for Planning is the responsibility of the Liaison Librarian in consultation with the Faculty Library Representative. Selection is guided by the Collection Development Policy.
The UW Library collection includes over 219 current electronic and print serials in subject areas of interest to Planning. The Planning library fund supports the cost of over 78 of the serials. Many of the electronic serials are paid from the central Electronic Resources library fund.
The UW Library collection includes over 30,200 monographs in subject areas of interest to Planning.
With the School of Architecture’s move to Cambridge in 2004, the architecture collection was transferred to the Musagetes Architecture Library. Decisions on which titles remained on the main campus or transferred to Cambridge were based on consultations between the librarian for architecture and other subject librarians in the social sciences and humanities. Since both architects and planners have overlapping interest in urban design, the urban design collection was divided between Musagetes and the main campus. In recognition that some of the titles transferred to Cambridge would also be needed for Planning, the Faculty of Environmental Studies gave a one-time funding to Planning to duplicate many of these essential titles for the main campus.
In addition, the Planning book budget has received a small increase to address the ongoing needs to enrich the urban design collection. Furthermore, in spring 2006, through a Planning student initiated proposal, the library was awarded a small grant to purchase design books from the Waterloo Environmental Studies Endowment Foundation (WESEF), a student organization. Decisions on purchasing titles for the urban design collection are made through consultation between the liaison librarian and faculty teaching in urban design.
Books and requests for photocopies of journal articles from Musagetes, like any other location in TRELLIS, UW’s library catalogue, can be delivered to the main campus within 3 business days.
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 enhance the depth and breadth of local materials available in subject areas of interest to Planning.
The UW Library’s print collections in Planning are primarily housed in the Dana Porter Library which holds the social science and humanities collections. Planning also relies on collections in the Davis Centre for the scientific subject areas; the University Map Library for the cartographic collection and spatial data; and the Musagetes Library for the architectural collection. Access to the entire UW Library 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 anytime. With the exception of the current issues of print journals and reference materials, most of the materials in the Library’s collection circulate. Undergraduate students may borrow monographs for 2 weeks at a time.
The Library subscribes to a number of Web accessible research databases. The following are some of the databases of interest to Planning:
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
Canadian Research Index
Environment Abstracts
Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management
Factiva
Geobase
PAIS International
Sociological Abstracts
Urban Studies Abstracts
Web of Science (including Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Humanities Citation Index
Urban Studies Abstracts
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 article, or to the TRELLIS catalogue record for holdings and call number information.
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.
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.
Most Canadian university libraries also extend in-person borrowing privileges to undergraduate students through the Canadian University Reciprocal Agreement (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. It includes a Web page of research starting points for Planning, developed by the Liaison Librarian for Planning (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/plan/index.html).
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.
The Dana Porter Library is open 99 hours a week during the term, with extended hours during exam periods. There are 1091 study spaces and 5 group study rooms available in the Dana Porter Library. There are also 94 workstations with internet access available for student use throughout the Library. Students may also connect their laptops to the network at any of the 36 hard-wired Ethernet drops or through the library’s wireless service.
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 online chat or e-mail options provided through the Ask a Librarian service (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/asklib/index.html) or contact the Liaison Librarian for Planning directly if a personal visit to the Library is not convenient.
The Liaison Librarian for Planning is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. The Liaison Librarian works with faculty 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, tours, and workshops for undergraduate and graduate students.
During the past seven years, the Planning library fund has spent over $440,000 on information resources. Table 1 provides further details. Electronic research indexes, reference materials, and full text electronic journals packages are purchased from general funds. It should be noted that materials acquired for other departments such as Geography, Environment and Resource Studies, Architecture, Recreation and Leisure Studies, Biology, and Sociology are also of interest to Planning.
More detailed information including lists of serials purchased for Planning, full text electronic journal titles in subject areas of interest to Planning, number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to Planning, and a description of the UW Library website are available in the Library.
I would be pleased to discuss the Library's holdings and services in more detail. I believe that the Library provides a high level of support for the undergraduate and graduate programs in Planning.
Year |
* Serial Expenditure |
Book Expenditure |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditure |
1999/00 |
42,820 |
21,103 |
7,186 |
71,109 |
2000/01 |
51,849 |
17,242 |
5,642 |
71,109 |
2001/02 |
37,244 |
17,242 |
5,642 |
62,471 |
2002/03 |
41,682 |
23,056 |
6,992 |
71,729 |
2003/04 |
38,565 |
17,615 |
8,007 |
64,188 |
2004/05 |
16,732 |
24,819 |
7,777 |
49,328 |
2005/06 |
18,207 |
24,136 |
8,248 |
50,591 |
TOTAL |
247,099 |
145,162 |
51,888 |
444,149 |
* What appears to be a decline in serials expenditures deserves comment. Because many electronic journals are purchased in packages paid by the central Electronic Resources library fund, it is not possible to identify individual serials expenditures for titles supporting specific departments.
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