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- Architecture Library
- Books
- Ebooks
- Articles
- Images & Media
- Drawings & Maps & City Insurance Plans
- Equipment
- Materials
- Citing Sources
- Thesis Resources
- One School, One Book
Architecture Library
Contact the Library
Email Address: architecturelibrary@laurentian.ca
Telephone: 705-675-1151, extension 7273
The Architecture Library is located on the second floor of the McEwen School of Architecture at 85 Elm Street in downtown Sudbury. The Library is accessible by stairwell and elevator and is on the same floor as three of the six studios and the majority of faculty offices. The Library is approximately 4,850 square feet and is heavily used during term. It is the only room in the entire complex of architecture buildings that is carpeted, and interestingly, the carpet has a pixelated graphic of the Sudbury impact basin. Library exhibits showcase materials or events at the School, Library Lunch & Learn sessions and students’ design work, making the space dynamic and welcoming.
The Architecture Library is configured with eight alcove-styled carrels for one or two individuals each, as well as long maple tables with caster seating with room for up to seventy (the typical class size at the School of Architecture). The informal lounge seating at the south end of the library is conducive for quiet reading, informal discussions, or public events. Given that the Library officially opened January 19, 2017, the facility, which showcases cross-laminated timber (CLT), is new, warm and inviting. It serves as a wonderful breakout space for students looking for an alternative to studio seating, for small group discussion, or a quiet place for research or study.
The Architecture Library is accessible to Architecture students, faculty and staff only.
Hours of Operation
Monday - Thursday: 9 AM to 8 PM
Friday: 9 AM to 4:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday: 1 PM to 5 PM
Library hours are subject to change on short notice. For an up-to-date view of our library hours, go to laurentian.ca/library-hours.
Subject Librarian
Library Assistant
Books
Searching the catalogue
The catalogue is your primary tool for finding books:
- Search "any field" when starting your search.
- Select title when you know the book you want.
You can then limit your search to the Architecture Library’s collection by selecting Architecture.
Browsing the shelf
Books are organized by call numbers. Here is a quick video on how to read a call number. Architecture-related materials are generally classified under NA.
Relevant call number ranges include:
GN – Vernacular Architecture
HT – City Planning. Urban Design.
KF – Architecture and Law
LB – Buildings for Education
N – Visual Arts
NA 1-60 – General
NA 100-130 – Architecture and the state
NA 190-1555.5 – History
NA 1995 – Architecture as a profession
NA 2000-2320 – Study and teaching. Research
NA 2335-2360 – Competitions
NA 2400-2460 – Museums. Exhibitions
NA 2500-2599 – General works
NA 2599.5-2599.9 – Architectural criticism
NA 2695-2793 – Architectural drawing and design
NA 2835-4050 – Details and decoration
NA 4100-8480 – Special classes of buildings
NA 4100-4145 – Classed by material
NA 4150-4160 – Classed by form
NA 4170-8480 – Classed by use
NA 4170-7020 – Public buildings
NA 4590-5621 – Religious architecture
NA 7100-7884 – Domestic architecture. Houses. Dwellings
NA 7910-8125 – Clubhouses, guild houses, etc.
NA 8200-8260 – Farm architecture
NA 8300-8480 – Outbuildings, gates, fences, etc.
NA 9000-9428 – Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
RA – Hospital and Health Facilities Design
SB – Landscape Architecture
TH – Building and Construction
Z 679 – Library Design
Rare books
The rare book collection contains books that are special editions, rare, unique, valuable, or fragile. So that we can preserve them, they cannot leave the Library. Ask staff at the front desk to view them.
Requesting a book
To have a book placed on the hold shelf for you:
- Click on the title to see the full record
- Navigate to the Get it heading
- For books from the Architecture or J.N. Desmarais libraries, click Request and complete the form. For items with multiple volumes, each volume will have its own link.
- For books from other libraries, click Get it from another library and complete the form.
- If you want the complete book, you must select Format: Physical.
- If you want just a single chapter or excerpt of less than 10% of the book, you can select Format: Digital and specify the chapter title or page range.
You will receive an email when the book is ready for you to pick up.
Multi-volume items
Ebooks
How do I find ebooks?
There are 2 ways of finding ebooks:
- Search the catalogue
- Search ebook databases
How do I search the catalogue for ebooks?
You can search for ebooks in the catalogue by limiting the format to books/ebooks. Follow the links to get access.
Which databases do I search for ebooks?
Articles
Where do I search?
- Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals ?
- Art & Architecture Source ?
- Artstor (now on JSTOR) ?
Artstor content is now available through JSTOR
Other useful databases to search
What journals does the library have in print?
Check out our Omni collection: Architecture print journals
Images & Media
Searching for images online
- Artstor (now on JSTOR): a visual resource database
- Archnet: an open-access library on the built environment of Muslim societies
- Getty - Open Content Program
- Google Advanced Image Search (under “usage rights,” choose “free to use or share”)
- OpenVerse - more than 600 million images and audio clips available for reuse under a Creative Common license
- Wikimedia Commons
Borrowing films from the Library
The film collection includes DVDs screened as part of MSoA film series.
Loan Period
14 days
How to view
The Library loans out USB connected DVD and blu-ray Drives.
How to borrow
Ask staff at the front desk to borrow a DVD or DVD drive as the collection is located in the backroom.
Drawings & Maps & City Insurance Plans
Print drawings
View lists of drawings held at the Architecture Library:
Online sources for drawings
Searching for images online
- Artstor (now on JSTOR): a visual resource database
- Archnet: an open-access library on the built environment of Muslim societies
- Canadian Centre for Architecture
- Canadian Architectural Archives
- Getty - Open Content Program
- Google Advanced Image Search (under “usage rights,” choose “free to use or share”)
- OpenVerse - more than 600 million images and audio clips available for reuse under a Creative Common license
- Wikimedia Commons
Sources for maps and demographics
- Scholars GeoPortal
- Greater Sudbury Maps Online (not always available)
- City of Greater Sudbury Open Data Portal
- Maps of Ontario
- Geospational Data at LU
- Canadian Real Estate (view a particular listing in detail, scroll below photos and listing information to the tab entitled "Statistics".There you will find data on income, population, housing, household, education, commute, languages -- provided by a third-party supplier based on census data from Statistics Canada.)
City Insurance Plans
Search further for city insurance plans to discover urban city maps that provided insurance companies with information about building composition -- in order to assess fire risk and subsequently assist in assigning insurance rates. These historical plans provide details on building construction and usage. In two dimensions they provide colourful insight into streets, neighbourhoods and non-residential regions.
- City Insurance Plans (pinned collection)
- Fire Insurance Plans (Western University Libraries). Covers: City of: Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Toronto, as well as Canada-wide, Listings by Province, and United States
Equipment
Audio-Visual
External Slimline USB blu-ray & DVD RW drive
Portable projection screens (80 inches) (60 inches)
Loan period: 3 days and can be extended for special circumstances
How to borrow
Ask the staff at the Library front desk.
Materials
The Architecture Library is developing a small, reference collection of core architectural building materials samples. The Materials Collection introduces students to a range of materials that can be used in the design and construction of the built environment.
CSI MasterFormat Divisions
The Materials Collection is organized by the Construction Specifications Institute’s (CSI) MasterFormat to familiarize students with industry standards before entering the design profession.
CSI MasterFormat is the standard for organizing construction specifications of commercial and institutional building projects in the U.S. and Canada.
MasterFormat is a product of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) and Construction Specifications Canada.
External Material Collection Resources
Materia - Materia is the global network in the area of innovative materials. Materia encourages joint innovation on the road to a more beautiful, sustainable and high-quality built environment.
The University of Texas at Austin Materials Laboratory - The Materials Lab maintains the largest and most comprehensive academic material collection in the world. The ever-growing collection features 29,000+ material samples and is reflective of the current building and design markets with a particular focus on smart, emerging and sustainable materials and technologies.
Citing Sources
Chicago style resources
- The latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is available online
- Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
- A print copy of the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style is available in the library
- Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) guide is updated as soon as possible, once there is a new CMOS edition
- Colgate Visual Resources Library is an excellent guide for citing images and links directly to the latest CMOS edition
- Citation management software, such as Zotero, is updated as soon as possible, once there is a new CMOS edition
Chicago style: quick reference
Chicago uses two different forms: the Author-Date system and the Notes and Bibliography system. Make sure you use the proper style and form as requested by your professor. The following quick reference guide will be using Chicago Notes and Bibliography*.
For the first notation, include all of the source information: author, title, and publishing data. When citing a source a second time, include the author’s last name, the abbreviated title, and the pages. If a source is cited more than two times successively, use “Ibid.” followed by the page numbers (if differing). Notes are formatted as footnotes or endnotes beginning with “1.”
*Chicago style uses hanging indents in its bibliography.
| Book | Lastname, Firstname. Book Title. Location of publication: publisher, year. Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. |
| Translated book |
Lastname, Firstname. Book Title. Translated by Firstname Lastname. Location of publication: publisher, year. De Saint-Exupéry, Antoine. The Little Prince. Translated by Katherine Woods. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1971. |
| Chapter in a collected work |
Lastname, Firstname. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Firstname Lastname, pages. Location of publication: publisher, year. Barman, Jean. “Taming Aboriginal sexuality: Gender, Power, and Race in British Columbia, 1850-1900.” In In the Days of our Grandmothers: A Reader in Aboriginal Women’s History in Canada. Edited by Mary-Ellen Kelm and Lorna Townsend, 270-300. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. |
| Journal article |
Lastname, Firstname. “Article Title.” Journal Title, Volume, no.# (year): pages. Accessed Month day, year (if applicable). URL or doi. Buchanan, Brett. “The Time of the Animal.” PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, 2 no.2 (2007): 61-80. Accessed November 7, 2012. http://search.proquest.com/docview/43243630?accountid=12005. |
| Newspaper article |
Lastname, Firstname. “Article Title.” Newspaper (place of publication), Month day, year. URL (if applicable). Smith, Teresa. “Drought-Stricken Almonte Farmer Receives Much-Needed Hay from Saskatchewan.” Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa), October 31, 2012. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Drought+stricken+Almonte+farmer+receiv... |
| Online presentation / conference |
Name of presenter. “Presentation Title if available.” Presented to Name of conference and organization, place, date. URL. Brown, Brené. “The Power of Vulnerability.” Presented to Ted Talks, Houston, June 2010. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html. |
| Website |
Author, screen name, or editor. “Title of page.” Website name, date last modified (if available). Date accessed (if not modified). URL. Historica Dominion Institute. Richard Pierpoint. Historica Dominion Institute. Accessed November 8, 2012. https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/richard-pierpoint |
| Blog |
Generally, blogs are listed in the notes and not the bibliography. However, if it is a blog of significance you may add it to your bibliography. If the title includes the word “blog” there is no need to repeat it within parentheses. In the notes: Geist, Michael, “Canadian Copyright Reform in Force: Expanded User Rights Now the Law,” Michael Geist (blog), November 7, 2012, http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6692/125/. |
Managing citations with Zotero
is a free, web-based citation manager that allows you to:
- Directly import references from article databases, the library catalogue, e-book collections, etc.
- Manage and organize your references and research materials (PDFs, ePubs, web page snapshots, etc)
- Annotate research papers with highlighting, custom notes, and capture tables or figures with automatic page references
- Create a bibliography
- Share your references with others
- Add in-text citation and a bibliography directly into your assignment
- Synchronize your references and research materials across multiple computers
- ... all with unlimited storage for users who have an @laurentian.ca or @laurentienne.ca email address associated with their Zotero account
To enable Zotero's Library Lookup service to find full-text documents licensed by Laurentian University, set Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> General -> Resolver to North America -> Laurentian University
Getting started with Zotero
- Consult the Zotero documentation
- Contact the librarian supporting your faculty
Thesis Resources
Laurentian M.Arch Theses
The Architecture Library has print copies of M.Arch Theses that can be consulted in the library. Ask the front desk staff to view any theses.
LU|ZONE|UL provides access to M.Arch theses online.
University repositories
cIRcle (University of British Columbia)
CURVE - Carleton University Research Virtual Environment
eScholarship@McGill (McGill University)
Essais de fin d'études en architecture (Université Laval)
LU|ZONE|UL (Laurentian University)
MSpace (University of Manitoba)
Papyrus (Université de Montréal)
PRISM (University of Calgary)
RULA Digital Repository (Ryerson University)
UWSpace (University of Waterloo)
Online theses and dissertations
Blogs and websites
One School, One Book
Each year the Library selects a book and invites the McEwen School of Architecture community to read the book over the winter term and come together to share their thoughts.
2025
Stay tuned! Next year's book selection will be announced soon.
2024
The book selected this year is Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. Drop by the Architecture Library to borrow a copy and join our book discussion in the Winter term led by Professor Tammy Gaber.
Angelou, Maya. 
Ondaatje, Michael. 
Sakamoto, Kerri. 
Calvino, Italo. 2019
Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. Boston: Mariner Books, 2014.
The Name of the Rose. Film. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2004.
2018
King, Thomas. The Inconvenient Indian: a curious account of Native people in North America. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2017.
Follett, Ken.