University Librarian's Message

Greetings!

Developing our collections and meeting the needs of graduate students are among the top priorities for the Libraries this year.

A key goal of the Libraries is to develop relevant and extensive collections for York University faculty and students which are on a par with other major universities across Canada. In an effort to achieve this goal, we are devoting up to $600,000 in one-time funds to augment the regular Libraries collections budget in 2004/2005. This amount is in additional to federal funding provided to the University to cover the indirect costs of research and this portion is targeted to ensure that specialized resources are available for York researchers.

Last year, the Libraries conducted a focus group study of graduate students to understand how they value library services and resources. Their comments will serve to guide some important planning and resource allocations in the Libraries this year. The focus group discussions brought home to us a number of facts:

• Collections are the most highly valued element of library support for graduate students.
• Assistance with access to these collections closely follows in importance.
• Graduate students have a strong interest in working more closely with librarians to become more effective users of information resources for their research.
• Graduate students, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, consistently articulated a need for library space that is conducive to long periods of intensive reading and writing.

These are just a couple of our priority concerns for York University Libraries this year. For more information on developments past and upcoming, please watch for the York University Libraries' Annual Report for 2003/2004, which will be available soon on the Libraries website.

Please accept my best wishes for a productive and rewarding year.

Cynthia Archer
University Librarian

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