| McMaster University Library | |
|---|---|
| Location | McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Type | Academic library |
| Established | 1887 |
| Branches | 3 |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | 1,229,351 books; 510,269 e-books; 88,384 journals, newspapers, and other serials; 59,204 sound recordings, videos, and musical scores; 138,142 maps; also numerous drawings, manuscripts, and archives.[1] |
| Size | 2,000,000 volumes? |
| Other information | |
| Director | Vivian Lewis |
| Employees | 80 |
| Website | library.mcmaster.ca |
McMaster University Library is the academic library system for the faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, Science, as well as the Michael DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. McMaster also has a Health Sciences Library administered by the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Locations
McMaster University Library consists of three locations with distinct subject specialities: Mills Memorial Library (Humanities and Social Sciences), Innis Library (Business), and the H.G. Thode Library of Science and Engineering. The University Library also provides library services at McMaster's Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
History
The library was established as part of McMaster University in 1887 and was originally located in McMaster Hall in Toronto, Ontario. When the university and library moved to Hamilton in 1930, the library resided in University Hall, one of the University’s five original buildings. [McMaster Alumni News, vol. 21, no. 3, December 10, 1951]. (1) (2)
In May of 1951, the library moved to the newly-constructed Mills Memorial Library, named after David Bloss Mills, whose foundation, the Davella Mills Foundation, funded the construction.[citation]. Mills was extended to the east in stages during the 1960s and 1970s, and underwent a major renovation from 1990- 1994.The renovation won the Ontario Library Association 1996 Building Award for Best Academic Library Project. The original Mills Memorial Library building now houses the McMaster Museum of Art.
The university’s first Science Library opened as a separate room in Burke Science Building in 1954, [cite?], and remained there until 1978, when the H.G. Thode Library of Science and Engineering opened. Thode Library was named in honour of scientist Henry George Thode (1910-1997), who was the University’s president from 1961 to1972 [citation?].
The Innis Library (business) first opened in 1974 and is named after economist and McMaster alumnus Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952). Located in Kenneth Taylor Hall and adjacent to the Michael DeGroote School of Business, it supports the academic and research needs of the DeGroote School of Business.
The Library’s most important collection, the Bertrand Russell archives, was purchased from Lord Russell in 1968 (Greenlee, pg. 92). In 1987, McMaster University Library became a member of the prestigious Association of Research Libraries, one of only 5 Canadian libraries at the time (Greenlee, pg. 306)..
Services and Centres
The Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship is located in Mills Library. The Sherman Centre provides research support for digital scholarship and digital humanities.
The Lyons New Media Centre is a specialized multimedia space, within Mills Library, for the innovative creation and use of new and traditional media in teaching, learning, and research at McMaster.
The Maps, Data & GIS Centre, supplies researchers with access to a wide range of geospatial map and data sets and provides PC workstations with specialized cartographic and statistical software. The Lloyd Reeds Map Collection supports the geographic research needs of students, staff, and faculty at McMaster University.
The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections is the principal repository for rare books, archives, antiquarian maps, and related historical material in support of teaching, education, and scholarship.
Collections
David Jill
The McMaster University Library’s collections are developed to support the research needs of students, staff and faculty at McMaster University and contain specialized collections such as : university archives, data and statistics, digital archives, digital collections, digital humanities, institutional repository, government publications, new media, maps and geographical information systems, music, and theses.
William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections acts as the principal repository for rare books, archives, antiquarian maps and related historical material at McMaster University Libraries in support of teaching, education, and scholarship. The McMaster University Library was designated as a Category A institution by the Department of Canadian Heritage in 1977[1]. Named after William Ready, the University Librarian from 1966 until his retirement in 1979, the Division’s diverse collections are of national and international significance[2]. and includes the Bertrand Russell Archives.
The Digital Archive contains digitized special library collections, mostly from Maps, selected archival material from Research Collections, and digital copies from the rare books collection
Digital Collections is the collection of the Library's digitized materials, and supports and maintains access to materials such as the Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing[2]; World War, 1939-1945, German Concentration Camps and Prisons Collection; Digital Russell; and Peace & War in the 20th Century[3];
MacSphere (Institutional Repository) is McMaster University’s Institutional Repository(IR) designed to bring together all of the University's research, with an aim to preserve and provide access to that research. The research and scholarly output included in MacSphere has been selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centres on campus and includes theses, ______, open access journals published by the university community, and is available to McMaster's scholars in order to comply with current open access requirements by the Canadian granting agencies Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)[4].
Data, Statistics and GIS department facilitates the use of specialized electronic research data products such as microdata, aggregate data, statistics and Geospatial datasets which covers a broad range of subject areas with an emphasis on Social Sciences, Health Sciences, Business and Economics.
The Lloyd Reeds Map Collection, named for former professor Lloyd George Reeds and part of the Maps, Data, GIS department, supports the geographic research needs of students, staff, and faculty. It holds more than 130,000 paper maps, 18,000 air photos, and 3,000 atlases. The collection also contains thousands of historical maps, many of which are being digitized and made available freely online[5].
Memberships
Academic and research library memberships for McMaster University Library include:
- Association of Research Libraries
- Canadian Association of Research Libraries
- Canadian Library Association
- Council on Library and Information Resources
- Coalition for Networked Information
- Coalition of Open Access Repositories
- Canadian Research Knowledge Network
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- DuraSpace
- International Federation of Library Associations
- Ontario Council of University Libraries
- Ontario Library Association
- Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
Awards
2008: Excellence in Academic Libraries, Association of College and Research Libraries[6]
2007: GovSIG Project of the Year, Project Management Institute[7]
1996: Building Award for Best Academic Library Project, Ontario Library Association[8]
References
- ^ "McMaster University Fact Book" (PDF). Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. McMaster University. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
- ^ ""McMaster's Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing." 06 Nov 2009". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ^ "History lessons online; Major collections contribute to Peace and War website." 30 Sept. 2008 : A02. Spectator Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
- ^ ""Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications."". Retrieved 22 May 2015.
- ^ ""Academic uses of Google Earth and Google Maps in a library setting."". Retrieved 22 May 2015.
- ^ "Excellence in Academic Libraries Award". Association of College & Research Libraries. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ^ "Mills Learning Commons receives project management award". Daily News. McMaster University. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ^ "Library Building Award Winners". Ontario Library Association. Retrieved 28 April 2015.