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

Responsibilities for collection development are outlined in the tables below:

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

Circulating books 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.

The J.N. Desmarais Library also contains several specialized collections spread throughout the building such as the Collection franco-ontarienne and the Mining Environment collection.

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.

Faculty may borrow a maximum of 50 books. Books are due 120 days from the date of borrowing, and are subject to recall after 3 weeks if requested by another borrower, or after 3 days if required for Reserve.

Faculty may renew books once using the My Account link in the catalogue; for additional renewals, books must be presented at the Circulation Desk.

Late returns are subject to a fine of $0.50 per day per item. For more information, please contact Lise Seguin, ext 3336.

For items with a loan period of more than 4 days, a reminder notice will be sent to the email address associated with your library system account before the item is overdue. Two overdue notices will be sent to the same email address after the item is overdue. After an item is more than 30 days overdue, you will be sent another notice, and a $5 fine will be applied to your account.

For material not held in the J.N. Desmarais Library, use RACER, which is accessible from our home page. 

Normally articles are emailed to your GroupWise account. Books must be picked up at the Circulation Desk.

Please note that you must register before launching your first request.

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, please click here, or contact Ashley Thomson, ext. 3322.