92 · Representative Documents: Programmatic Accrediting Agency Reports
University of Waterloo
Architecture Library Accreditation Report August 2010
Architecture |Accreditation Reports |Information Resources Management |Library |University of Waterloo
http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/irmc/departmental/architecture.html[9/5/12 4:27:12 PM]
opened, CPL generously set aside $20,000. from their acquisitions budget to build a core collection of architecture
titles to supplement Musagetes Library holdings. Since then, CPL has devoted around $5,000. annually to
purchase books and journal subscriptions in support of the School. Every September, the Head of Reference and
Information Services provides a brief outline of their resources to first year students and explains how to get a
library card. It is my understanding that our students make heavy use of their collection.
Rare Books
A separate, environmentally controlled Rare Book Room houses one of Canada's most outstanding collections of
rare books on architecture and design. The Rare Book Room collection features landmark titles in the history and
theory of architecture, exemplary treatises from the sixteenth to the twentieth century supportive of the School of
Architecture's cultural history emphasis, and texts outlining architectural developments in Northern Europe and on
the North American frontier, which have a profound effect on architectural theory and urban development in
Canada. All rare book materials are listed in Primo and are available for viewing at Musagetes Library upon
request.
Each term the Branch Head prepares a themed display of titles from the collection. Some of these have been:
Architecture of Ancient Cultures
The Birth of Modernism
Great Gothic Cathedrals
Skyscrapers
Toronto Neighbourhoods
While many of the displays have been timed to coincide with a particular course offering, this has had little effect
on the use of the collection.
The Architecture book budget cannot support the purchase of titles for addition to the Rare Book collection. Its
growth depends on donations-in-kind or the transfer of older, out-of-print titles in need of additional protection.
Unspent, end of year funds in March 2010 allowed for the acquisition of some expensive new titles which will
surely become rare in the years to come:
Julius Shulman: Modernism Rediscovered (3 vol.)
Glenn Murcutt, Architect,
Oscar Niemeyer
Villa Girasole: The Revolving House
These contemporary titles may prove to be more appealing to our students.
Journals
Journal subscriptions may be purchased by the Branch Head using funds designated for Architecture or they may
be purchased through the central Electronic Resources library fund. Titles purchased through the Electronic
Resources fund are available in an electronic format. Titles purchased using the Architecture serials fund may be
print and/or electronic.
The Architecture serials fund supports the cost of 77 current print subscriptions relating to architecture, design,
interior design, landscape architecture, and others of general interest to architecture students (titles available
upon request). When a title ceases publication, students are asked for suggestions of replacement titles of equal
value.
Electronic Resources
Publishers of architecture materials have been slow to produce electronic equivalents’ of their print materials. As a
result, there are very few electronic resources that directly relate to architecture in the collection. At this writing
there are fewer than one hundred books on architecture related topics and fewer than 5 of the 77 print journals
to which Musagetes Library subscribes are replicated online in their entirety. Those limited titles that are made
available in fulltext through databases like the Avery Index or Factiva do not include accompanying images.
In other subject areas, UW Library has purchased or subscribes to a range of electronic resources including
research databases, fulltext 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, encyclopedias, and style
guides.
The following are some of the electronic resources of particular interest to Architecture:
ARTstor image collections
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
CumInCad: Cumulative Index for Computer-Aided Design
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