About the Library

Vision

To be central to the University community as a valued facilitator, partner and catalyst for learning, research and knowledge-creation on campus.

Values

The core values that drive our vision are learning, service, intellectual freedom, stewardship, access, innovation, communication, and integrity.

Building

Our spaces have been architected to support your collaborative learning and research. Features of our space:

Extended building hours
Publicly-accessible desktop computers
Meeting rooms and computer labs
Building-wide WiFi internet
IT Help Desk
Starbucks Cafe

Services

The Library hosts a number of events which bring together the various disciplines of the University. These events offer an opportunity for faculty, staff, students, and community members to meet and interact to exchange ideas and perspectives thereby creating new areas of knowledge and understanding.

Our research-centered services include world-renowned archival collections in Canadian theatre, landscape architecture, rural history, and Scottish culture. The scholarly communications program includes open access scholarly journal publication services and support, the institutional repository (Atrium), author rights and copyright consultation services, digital collections development, and the University of Guelph and Agri-environmental Research Data Repositories.

Partnerships

The University of Guelph Library partners with the University of Waterloo Library and the Wilfrid Laurier University Library to form the Tri-University Group of Libraries (TUG).

The McLaughlin Library is located on the main University of Guelph campus. The Library is also affiliated with the University of Guelph-Humber Library and a regional campus library on Ridgetown Campus.

In keeping with our mandate to support and participate in the wider academic community, the Library is a member of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN), and the USA-based Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

Strategic Priorities 2017 - 2020

The Library's Strategic Priorities are:

Transform our physical and digital spaces in order to create tailored, cohesive, and accessible experiences for our users
Integrate services and resources into teaching and learning in order to deliver library content to users at point of need
Position the library as the hub of Open initiatives in order to enhance sharing of educational materials and research outputs
Contribute to strategic campus initiatives in order to achieve shared goals
Foster an inclusive and engaged staff culture in order to grow and develop as an organisation
Adopt evidence-based practices in order to inform decisions about library policy and programming