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Library Instruction - Information Literacy

Orientation and Instruction

Brenda Wallace Reading RoomThe Library’s core workshops have been mounted in the Links section of our new home page under the heading "Research Skills Tutorial." 
 
Senate regulations require that these workshops “be integrated as a required component into each undergraduate program in the earliest-level course (or courses) that expect(s) the use of the library." However, we encourage you to make these workshops a compulsory part of any course requiring the use of library resources. The workshops teach students library fundamentals; they require no class time on your part; they may be done at any time by students; and best of all, once they have been done, they need not be done again as students can print off as many certificates as they require. Students need the information in these workshops if they are to exploit the library to the fullest. If you would like your own password, please contact the E-Learning Office, ext. 3962.

The library has also developped a series of Orientation and instructional videos, including a virtual tour of the library building. These videos will enable you and your students to familiarize yourselves with the services and tools offered by the Library and Archives, learn to search in Omni and the online databases, learn to retrieve articles and book chapters from the library's e-collection, and much more.

In addition to the online workshops, special in-class instruction in your discipline is also available. To make your arrangements, contact your archivist or librarian.

Floor Plans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Services

Class Space

The Library has small rooms available that may be reserved on special occasions for classes. Contact the Library Service Counter, ext. 4800.

The Brenda Wallace Computer Centre, which has 25 terminals, is available for your classes. To book, contact your librarian.

GIS/DATA

Numeric and geospatial data are available for teaching and research. Laurentian has a site licence for software such as SPSS and ArcGIS Desktop. For assistance, contact gis@laurentian.ca.

Photo Identification Cards

Photo identification cards are the property of Laurentian University and are used by University faculties, services and staff to identify you as a member of Laurentian and to give access to campus services. These include library privileges, photocopier use, cafeteria, and entrance to the gym. For faculty, these cards are available at no charge from the myLaurentian Hub located on the first floor, R.D. Parker Building (formerly known as the Registrar’s Student Service Centre).

Research Assistance

Librarians are available to give you personalized assistance in conducting literature reviews.

LU|Zone|UL

An institutional repository (IR) is a database with a set of services to capture, store, index, preserve and redistribute a university's scholarly research in digital formats. As a general rule, IR technology has been developed to support the open access model of dissemination. Laurentian’s institutional repository LU|Zone|UL has distributed and preserved the scholarly work of LU faculty, in addition to Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, since 2007. 

Circulation

Undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty of Laurentian  may borrow up to 500 circulating books for 120 days.

photo of book stacks

All books may be renewed and unlimited number of times unless requested by another borrower. Please know that if a book is requested by another patron, a borrower will normally have seven days to return the book, notwithstanding the original due date.  The due date stamped into the book at the circulation counter serves simply as a courtesy reminder of the due date at the time the stamp was applied.  If a book is recalled before the date stamped into the book, the new recall due date takes precedence.  For greater clarity, the due date listed in the library’s online catalogue is the official due date of the book at any time. 

Email Notification

Patrons will be given 14 days to return recalled material before the item is declared lost.

Items declared lost will incur the following charges:

  • $25 non-refundable administration charge
  • $125 default replacement charge (subject to adjustment based on the value of the item)

These charges are in addition to the overdue fines assessed for the recalled items.

Your LU Library Account

Login to your library account through the catalogue to renew your books, to see which books you have out, to place holds, and to verify whether you have fines owing.

Your username and password are the same as your Gmail and D2L account.

If you do not know your password, click the "Forgot your password" link below the login screen.

Library digitization service

To request digitization of a print book chapter or journal article:

  1. Type your search on the Omni search bar (example: All our Relations: Finding the Path Forward):

    Omni search bar

  2. Click on the item on the results page:
  3. search results

  4. Sign in using your Laurentian ID and password (if not already signed in):

    sign in link

  5. Under the Get It heading, click on Digitization:

    digitization link

  6. Fill in chapter or as much article details as possible and click Send Digitization Request  (Optional: enter Comment and Not needed after date).

    In keeping with copyright law we can “make copies of up to ten percent (10%) of a work (e.g., a book, whether monographic or a collection of shorter works) OR provided that it is no more than ten percent (10%) of the work in which it is found, we can make copies of an entire chapter from a book”.  We cannot provide digitization of a complete book, or of a complete periodical volume or issue.

     

    book details to complete

  7. You will receive an email when the item has been digitized, with a download link to the scanned material. The link will be active for 30 days.

Access to Resources @ LU

The reserve collection, periodicals, the reference collection, newspapers, as well as indexes and abstracts are located on the second floor.

Circulating books,  recreational paperbacks, atlases and the government documents collection are located on the third.

The Archives, located on the first floor of the Desmarais Library, houses the following special collections: Regional; Faculty; Mining Environment Vertical Files; Rare Books; 4th Years Honours Essay and Theses; and Archives.

E-books

E-books are a terrific new resource that the library in acquiring, largely because they may be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection.

They are located in two different places:

  • Some may be located by using the library’s catalogue. These records will have [electronic resource] in the title.
  • E-books can also be located by searching in e-book collections. Searching in these collections is the same as searching in a database.

Access to the Collections

Access to Laurentian’s library collections starts with the catalogue. Electronic collections are also available from off-campus through our proxy server. For faculty, the default log-in and password are your Gmail log-in and password. For assistance, contact Information Technology, 706-675-1151, ext. 2200.

Books within the library are accessible through the Omni discovery layer in various ways including by author, title and subject. So too are all the special collections housed in the Archives as well as government documents. If you need help finding government information in print or online, consult the responsible librarian.

Periodical articles are found using online indexes and abstracts from the library’s home page from on- and off-campus. Research guides list recommended databases and other online and print resources by subject.

The library subscribes to nearly 50,000 periodicals in full-text electronic format you can find through the Omni discovery layer. Like books, periodicals in print are organized on the shelves by Library of Congress call number; periodicals in microformat are organized by title.

Archives

The archival fonds are all on or from Northern Ontario. These primary sources mostly pertain to (by alphabetical order):

  • Arts, culture and communications media
  • Clubs & social organizations
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Forestry and related activities
  • Labour
  • Mining industries and related activities
  • Politics & Politicians
  • Population & socio-ethnic groups
  • Religious communities
  • Sudbury

Finding aids for Laurentian’s archival fonds are most easily accessed from the Archives or contact Natasha Gerolami.

Paperbacks

A selection of popular paperbacks is available on the third floor.  In 2011,  graphic novels were added to this collection.

DVD's and Interfilm

All DVDs formerly in the Instructional Media Centre have been moved to the 2nd floor and equipment is available on site to view such films. 

If you wish a DVD or VHS tape for class purposes, please search the Watmedia Catalogue to ensure it is available--and then email Laurentian Interfilm with the specifics of your request, including the date(s) you will need the item.  Plan ahead a couple of weeks before submitting your request.

Maps

Topographical maps for the country and base maps for Ontario are located in the geography department.

Music

The library has a large collection of 33 1/3 rpm (long play) recordings comprised mostly of classical music from the baroque era through to the twentieth century.

There also is a selection of jazz and popular music recordings. The loan period is one week.

Collection Development

How Librarians Develop the Collection

Librarians are responsible for ensuring the balance and integrity of the collection by working in close collaboration with departments, schools and program leaders.

You can request the addition of books, journal subscriptions, or research databases.

Librarians by faculty

Faculty Language Librarian
Arts English Natasha Gerolami (email) (book a research consultation)
  français Natasha Gerolami (email) (book a research consultation)
Education and Health English Dan Scott (email) (book a research consultation)
  français Leïla Saadaoui (email) (book a research consultation)
Management   TBD
Science, Engineering, & Architecture   TBD

Library Representatives

Library representatives, selected by their colleagues, are the departmental/school/program contact persons. Library representatives are encouraged to assist librarians in developing a collection that will support the academic needs of students and the research needs of faculty.

Building the Collection

Ordering

To ensure that the available budget is expended responsibly, we strongly encourage all ordering units to submit orders to their unit's library representative by the end of December. Library representatives will pass these orders on to the librarian responsible for each discipline.

Collection Principles

The Library normally does not purchase two copies of a book; it does not as a general rule purchase textbooks.

Reading Lists

Please send copies of your assignments/reading lists to the appropriate librarian so that the Library can determine whether the items are available. You will be contacted if there are any problems regarding specific titles.

Gifts

The Library welcomes gifts of either money or materials and is prepared to offer a receipt for income tax purposes. Materials are added to the collection as appropriate.

Faculty Publications

If you have published a book, we would appreciate your donation of a signed copy for the Faculty Authors’ Collection and a second copy for circulation. All donations are acknowledged, and you will receive a charitable donation receipt upon request. We strive to make faculty publications available within a day of receipt. Contact: Alain Lamothe, ext. 3304.

Institutional Repository

The Laurentian University institutional repository, called LU|ZONE|UL, enables you to deposit electronic copies of your journal articles, creative works, presentations, and other scholarly materials to support open access to information and significantly increase the visibility and impact of your work. For more information, contact Dan Scott, ext 3315.

Reserve Material

The library places material on reserve for courses at the request of faculty. Use the Faculty Reserve Material Form to have books or DVDs from the library's collection placed on reserve. You may also put personal copies on reserve.

To ensure that the material you want is available when needed, please contact the Library User Assistance Desk at least 1 week ahead of time. If any item must be ordered from a supplier, please allow at least 2 extra weeks for the order to be processed.

Articles and book chapters

Please use D2L to post any articles or chapters required for your course readings.

More information

Detailed guidelines for the Reserve collection are available from the Library User Assistance Desk, ext. 4800. For further information, contact Ginette Gervais, ext 3302.

Getting Material not held @ LU

Interlibrary Loans - RACER

For material not held in the J.N. Desmarais Library, use Interlibrary Loans.

Normally articles are emailed to your Laurentian account. Books must be picked up at the Borrower Services Desk.

There is generally no charge to obtain either books or articles although small changes apply if ordered items are not picked up within three weeks.

A book may only be borrowed once.  It may not be renewed or borrowed a second time. Books which are not returned on time also incur a charge of $1.00 per each day overdue.

For further information contact Ginette Gervais, x3302.

Direct Borrowing

Faculty who visit other university libraries in Canada may borrow directly from these libraries with a valid ID card, and may return their books at Laurentian at no charge. For information, please contact the Library User Assistance Desk, ext. 4800.

Equipment

One Card Loader

Located on the second floor in the "Learning Commons", the OneCard loader will allow you to replenish your LU ID card. You can redeem money from your card throughout the campus at various photocopiers, printers, vending machines, coffee shops and the cafeteria.

Chromebooks, Chargers & Calculators

Students can borrow chromebooks, laptop chargers,  cell phone chargers, external DVD/CD ROM drives and scientific calculators at the Library User Assistance Desk. For details, contact that desk.

Printers / Scanners / Photocopiers

One card Printers / Scanners / Photocopiers are located  on the second floor and the equipment is capable of producing in either colour or black & white. Your faculty photo ID card serves as your access card. Visit the "One Card" machine in the Learning Commons to add money to your card, or go to http://lul.ca/onecard to add funds electronically. With a card, the cost per page is 9 cents for black & white printing or photocopying, or 25 cents in colour. There is no charge to scan and when you scan you can save your output on Google Drive or email it to yourself.  For help using the machines, please come to the Library User Assistance Desk.

Telephone

An in-house phone which reaches university numbers is available near the book bin on the first floor.

Microform Readers

New equipment has been placed in the Microform section of the second floor, which gives you the option of converting pages on microform to .pdf documents.

 

USB Charging Station

Plug your cable into the USB charging station to top up your phone or tablet - located by the microfilm machine.

Feedback

We are always interested in your opinion about our collections and services. If you have a suggestion, you may leave it on a compliments / questions / suggestions sheet near the exit to the library. You can request the addition of books, journal subscriptions, or research databases to the Laurentian University library collection.

You may also visit, phone or write:

Natasha Gerolami
Chair, Department of Library and Archives (interim)
ngerolami@laurentian.ca

or

Alain Lamothe
University Librarian (interim)
705-675-1151 ext. 4841 or alamothe@laurentian.ca