Collection review

Government publications:

Update: August 28, 2018

With renovation work on the third floor of Dana Porter Library coming to an end, the government publications that were temporarily stored off-campus have now been returned to the Library. Staff are working to relocate this material to the appropriate section of the redesigned third floor.

Until this work is complete, consult staff at the Circulation Desk for the location of the government publication(s) you are looking for. Further announcements will be made - and the library catalogue updated - once this work is complete. Thank you for you continued patience.

Update: June 20, 2017

The Library is close to finishing the review of the government publications on the fifth floor of Dana Porter Library. A significant volume of government publications has been identified and removed or relocated as they met one or more of the following criteria:

  • Where electronic format is appropriate and we have perpetual electronic access rights OR materials are now in an open-access format
  • Appropriate monographs have been reclassified, relocated and integrated into our regular collection on the sixth -10th floors
  • Have not circulated over an extended period of time and can be easily obtained through interlibrary loan (ILL)
  • No longer meets the teaching and research needs/interests of the UWaterloo community, based on collection policies developed in conjunction with academic departments

Government publications identified to be retained in the government document collection will be moved to the third floor of Dana Porter Library. This move will take place once the renovation of the third and fifth floors of the Library has finished.

Please note that the fifth floor of Dana Porter Library will be closed as of July 4, 2017. Government publications being retained will be unavailable and will remain so for the duration of the Library renovation. The library catalogue will be updated to show that this material is temporarily unavailable. Some material is available online and other material may be requested from Interlibrary loan (ILL). Questions about acquiring government publications from other sources may be sent to Agnes Zientarska-Kayko, azientar@uwaterloo.ca, 519-888-4567, ext. 32891. A further update will be made available when access to this material is possible.

Updates concerning other collection reviews will be provided as they become available.

Please reach out to:

Nick Richbell, Strategic Area Lead, Collection Lifecycle Management, nick.richbell@uwaterloo.ca, 519-888-4567, ext. 32445

or

Kathy MacDonald, Head, Information Services and Resources, Dana Porter Library, kamacdonald@uwaterloo.ca, 519-888-4567, ext. 33312 if you have any questions or concerns.

Duplicate rare book sale

Special Collections & Archives has identified a number of duplicate titles in the collection that will be made available for sale to the public and University community.

Why are we selling rare books?

We collect material and preserve it for use by future generations. As such, we normally do not remove items from our collections. After an in-depth review of our rare book collection, we have identified some duplicate items that have been collected over time.

The proceeds raised from the sale of these items will be used by Special Collections & Archives to purchase unique and distinct rare book and archival material. New purchases will further enhance our existing collections, and benefit our university community and beyond. 

Special Collections & Archives relies heavily on, and are thankful for, the generosity of our donors. We work diligently with our donors to ensure that we are not receiving any duplicate items into our collection.

Details of the sale can be found on the Library’s Events page.

Please send any questions to Nick Richbell, Head, Special Collections & Archives, 519-888-4567, ext. 32445.

AccessEngineering – access ending June 30, 2017

AccessEngineering is a collection of engineering ebooks from McGraw Hill. Its subscription will expire on June 30 and will not be renewed due to a proposed price increase of 344% (from ~$5,000 USD to ~$26,000 USD). The price hike is triggered by a change in pricing model that is now based on FTE (full-time equivalent). In response to the price increase, the Library has completed a subscription review of AccessEngineering against its current needs, and areas of overlapping or equivalent content. The following resources are recommended alternatives:

  • Knovel: Interactive handbooks, encyclopedias and reference books for data and methods from more than 30 Sci-Tech publishers and professional societies
  • Springer eBooks: A complete collection of science and engineering ebooks published by Springer
  • CRCnetBASE: Science and technology reference resources from CRC Press

The Library has also purchased individual copies of high-use titles, as ebooks when possible, that are included in the AccessEngineering package. These titles include:

  • Design of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants: WEF Manual of Practice No. 8 ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice No. 76, Fifth Edition
  • Energy Systems Engineering: Evaluation and Implementation, Third Edition
  • Design for Manufacturability Handbook, Second Edition
  • Electrical Power Systems Quality, Third Edition
  • Process Equipment Malfunctions: Techniques to Identify and Correct Plant Problems
  • Mark's Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers, Eleventh Edition
  • Handbook of Optics: Volume I - Geometrical and Physical Optics, Polarized Light, Components and Instruments, Third Edition

Please contact the engineering librarians below if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely,

Kate Mercer
Systems Design Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering
kate.mercer@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567, ext. 32659

Kathy Szigeti
Chemical Engineering
kathy.szigeti@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567, ext. 38785

Siu Hong Yu
Civil & Environmental Engineering, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering and Management Sciences
shyu@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567, ext. 32648

Government document and periodicals review

As part of ongoing curation work, we are now embarking on the phase that focuses on print materials in the Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries: the periodicals and government publications located on Porter’s third and fifth floors respectively, on superseded and duplicate books, and periodicals located in Davis. This work involves systematically identifying and removing items that:

  • Have perpetual electronic access and where electronic format is appropriate
  • Are now in an open-access format
  • Have not circulated over an extended period of time and can be easily obtained through Interlibrary loan (ILL)
  • No longer meet the teaching and research needs/interests of the UWaterloo community, based on collection policies developed in conjunction with academic departments

See more information about the government document and periodicals review.

Subscription review

To ensure that our collections continue to meet the evolving needs of the University of Waterloo, the Library is currently reviewing our database and journal subscriptions. This effort also supports working within a sustainable budget.

We are applying the following criteria to our review:

  • current scholarly needs
  • availability of similar or equivalent content
  • usage data

Subscriptions ending

The following subscriptions have been cancelled. For a list of suggested alternatives please follow the links below:

If you have questions or would like more information about the Library's electronic resources, please contact your librarian or Nick Richbell, Strategic Area Lead, Collection Lifecycle Management,  nick.richbell@uwaterloo.ca, 519-888-4567, ext. 32445.