Archival materials and rare books
The Archives and Special Collections contain unique books and archival materials which need to be preserved and kept apart from the general collection, because of age, format, content and historical value. The use of these materials is carefully supervised, with their protection being a prime concern. The collections consist of rare books from Canada and abroad, as well as special collections such as the Slovak Collection, the Canadian Women’s Movement Archives, the French Manuscripts Collection and the History of Translation Collection.
Books
Collection emphasis is on current imprints. Materials are acquired from around the world but mostly from Canada, United States, the UK and France. As well as selecting from the standard commercial publishers, the library prioritizes titles from university presses, scholarly societies, and specialized professional publishers. Apart from research monographs, research reports, bulletins, special papers, lecture notes and conference proceedings are acquired as appropriate for each discipline.
The majority of the monograph collection is in print format, but the eBook collection is growing rapidly. In some disciplines, the eBook is the preferred format. In others, a mix of print and eBooks are acquired.
The library establishes publisher agreements for blanket purchases of ebook collections, wherever appropriate and cost-effective, based on an assessment of needs and value.
The library purchases selected current material requested via interlibrary loan (ILL) that is within our collection development policy parameters.
Data
The University of Ottawa Library acquires and makes available through searchable archives, numeric research data from various sources for research, learning, and teaching. We collect and prepare data and searchable metadata in French and English for surveys and administrative data from Statistics Canada and various other organizations, including commercial and international organizations. We work closely with our data preservation partners, such as OCUL Scholars Portal/Odesi, to ensure that our data collections are made visible, understandable and accessible for a wide variety of purposes, both academic and institutional, including visualisation, analysis and planning.
The library is a member of the Data Liberation Initiative, and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research and we collect time-series macrodata and cross-sectional microdata covering a range of economic, social-cultural, financial, life sciences and other scientific topics. The library participates in a collaborative agreement with the Canadian Research Data Centre Network and institutional partners to provide access to detailed longitudinal data for researchers in the National Capital Region.
Digital images
At the request of faculty, or by the decision of the Media Librarian, the library purchases subscriptions to online image databases, as well as selected images collections. Obsolete formats such as slides are gradually being transferred to digital formats. Digital images are managed using a content management system.
GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
The library collects geospatial data both in vector and raster format for all parts of the world. However, emphasis is placed on Canada, particularly Ontario and Quebec. Other regional interests are other Canadian provinces, China, the United States, French speaking Africa and South America.
Government documents
Government documents are collected in print, microform and online formats. Collection emphasis is on Canadian federal, Canadian provincial, intergovernmental international organizations and European Union publications. The library is a full depository for United Nations publications and World Bank publications. These are supplemented by selected foreign documents.
Journals
The library prefers online journals over print. The library cancels print subscriptions when the online format becomes available. However, we take into consideration faculty’s special requests for the retention of print. The print version is retained if it contains images, graphics or other forms of non-text content which is not reproducible clearly or accurately online or if there is an embargo (i.e. ‘moving wall’ for online content). The library purchases journal archives as appropriate, to ensure the completeness of the scholarly record.
Maps
The library has a comprehensive collection of historical and current Canadian topographic maps, general and historical atlases, geological, thematic maps, wall maps, globes, air photos in paper and digital format, microforms, digital mapping and cartographic reference works.
Music
At the request of faculty, or by the decision of the Music Librarian, the library purchases printed music, CDs and DVDs, orchestral and choral materials as well as subscriptions to online music databases which include indexes to printed music, printed music databases and streaming audio and video music databases.
Newspapers
The library acquires in print major regional newspapers and a number of other key newspapers. Microfilm has been purchased in the past, but we no longer add to the collection except for a few exceptions. We prefer online newspapers over print and purchase subscriptions to many newspapers databases.
Reference works
We prefer online reference resources over print, wherever available. We prefer the full text edition of an abstract and indexing database if it is available. Print materials are acquired when online is not available, on a very selective basis. We acquire basic print reference works such as dictionaries, bibliographies, indexes, directories, encyclopaedias and handbooks.
Textbooks
The library does not collect textbooks on a regular basis. However, we do purchase textbooks on an occasional basis, for the Reserve collection, as appropriate.
Theses
University of Ottawa theses are made available online through our institutional repository: uO Research. Print copies (available up to 2011) are kept in an offsite storage facility. Theses from around the world are available through a commercial database, some of which are full-text. Requests for other theses are processed by Interlibrary Loans.
Videos
The library collects videos that support research, teaching, and learning at the University. We purchase subscriptions to online video databases and online presentation rights, as well as DVDs at the request of faculty, or by the decision of the Media Librarian, with input from the appropriate subject librarian. We purchase titles in their original language with English and/or French captions and subtitles. The collection is not evenly divided among the subject areas because some subjects are more frequently represented in video. The collection includes videos that satisfy extracurricular and outreach interests, such as critically acclaimed titles, and award winners. Obsolete formats such as VHS are being phased out.