The following is a summary of University of Waterloo Library information resources and services in support of the undergraduate program in Women’s Studies, prepared by Leeanne Romane, Liaison Librarian for Women’s Studies.
Material is collected to support learning, teaching and research for Women’s Studies with emphasis on:
The Library obtains resources in electronic format whenever it is possible and practical to do so. Some electronic resources are obtained directly by the Library 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 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 Women’s Studies.
The Library’s print collections for Women’s Studies are housed primarily in the Porter Library. Access to the entire Library collection, as well materials held by UG and WLU, is available through the Web accessible tool known as PRIMO (http://primo.lib.uwaterloo.ca).
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 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.
Books and journal articles not owned by the Library, but held by UG or WLU, may be requested by faculty, students and staff through Primo. Items will be delivered to uWaterloo within three working days. The cost 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, the TUG libraries ensure that a last copy is maintained in perpetuity, through the Preservation of Last Copy Agreement. Items housed in the Annex will be delivered to uWaterloo within three working days. The cost of these services 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 uWaterloo 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 uWaterloo community through the 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/).
The Library uses linking technology (SFX) to enable users to link directly from research databases to the Library’s full text electronic journal subscription or to the catalogue record for holdings and call number information. The Library also provides access to bibliographic management software (RefWorks).
uWaterloo 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 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 Women’s Studies:
Also available to members of the uWaterloo academic community are the data holdings of <odesi>, OCUL’s digital repository for social science data (http://odesi.ca). <odesi> provides web access to resources such as the Statistics Canada surveys and datasets, including the Canadian Census, through the Library’s membership in the Data Liberation Initiative (DLI) (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-idd/dli-idd-eng.htm ) and Canadian public opinion polls. Access is also available to the data holdings of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/).
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 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 Liaison Librarian for Women’s 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 Liaison Librarian for Women’s Studies is available for consultation with individuals or small groups of students. He or she may be contacted directly in person, by phone, and by e-mail if a personal visit to the Library is not convenient. The Librarian also develops and maintains an online subject guide for Women’s Studies (http://subjectguides.uwaterloo.ca/womensstudies).
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, 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 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 Library by reading news @ your library (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/newsatlib/), an electronic newsletter prepared periodically.
Table 1. Summary of Expenditures - Women’s Studies
Year |
Journal Expenditures |
Book Expenditures |
Approval Plan Support |
Total Expenditures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2008/2009 |
N/A |
N/A |
$60 |
$60 |
2009/2010 |
N/A |
N/A |
$35 |
$35 |
2010/2011 |
N/A |
$1,225 |
$2,355 |
$3,580 |
2011/2012 |
N/A |
$655 |
$4,595 |
$5,250 |
2012/2013 |
$310 |
$1,785 |
$9,155 |
$11,250 |
TOTAL |
$310 |
$3,665 |
$16,200 |
$20,175 |
The Women’s Studies program has had a dedicated liaison librarian since its inception. It was financially supported by the Sociology fund. As of 2010, the average Women’s Studies expenditures were transferred from the Sociology fund into a Women’s Studies fund, and a new approval plan was created to allow for better tracking of the support.
In addition to the ones listed above other electronic resources of interest to Women’s Studies are purchased from the Electronic Resources library fund. Materials acquired for other departments, such as English Language and Literature, Drama, History, Sociology, Applied Health Studies, and Anthropology, are also of interest to Women’s Studies.
I believe that a strong level support for Women’s Studies has been provided by the Library, both in information resources and services.
More detailed information, including lists of print and electronic journals purchased for Women’s Studies and the number of monograph titles in subject areas of interest to Women’s Studies can be provided on request.
I would be pleased to discuss the Library's holdings and services with the appraisers at the time of a campus visit.
Leeanne Romane, Liaison Librarian for Women’s Studies
Reviewed by Annie Bélanger, Associate University Librarian, Information Resources and Academic Excellence for Mark Haslett, University Librarian.
The Preservation of Last Copy Agreement is available online (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/last_copy_agreement_sept06.html).
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