Library Services  

During the regular school year, the Library is open during the following hours:

Please visit our hours page regarding summer and holiday hours.

Reference Services offers library help, user education programs and online searching assistance for the Library's clients.

During the regular school year, a librarian is available at the Reference Desk during the following hours:

Please contact the Library regarding summer and holiday hours.

For genealogical research assistance please contact the Beaton Institute.

What Can Be Placed on Reserve

• Library Books
• Photocopies of single articles form periodicals
• Photocopies of single chapters from books
• Personal copies of books or periodicals
• Videocassettes and DVDs
• Solutions to problems
• Solutions to tests
• Lecture notes and/or overheads

Material placed on Reserve must adhere to the AUCC Fair Dealing policy addendum to the Access Copyright Interim Post-Secondary Educational Institution Tariff.

How to Place Materials on Reserve

Submit your reserves request forms to the Circulation Desk. Reserve request forms are available in PDF format from the links below. Please completely fill out the form to assure efficient processing.

Items are placed on reserve for one term and will be kept on reserve for a second term when requested in writing.

In order to meet demand, four weeks notice is requested for processing reserve material. This is particularly necessary at the beginning of fall and winter terms.

Reserve Request forms in PDF format (Click here to get Adobe Acrobat Reader):

• Photocopied Articles or Book Chapters
• Library and Professor's Books
• Material for Moodle

Removing Materials From the Reserve Collection

Faculty are asked to update their list each term, identifying items to remain on reserve and items to be removed. 

CBU faculty can request items found in Novanet by clicking on "Request a hold or request a loan" in the item record (or by clicking in WorldCat Local). The item will be transferred from the owning library to CBU in a rapid manner and the requesting patron will be charged a fee of $2.00.

CBU faculty can request an item not held by the CBU Library by clicking the  button in the WorldCat Local record for the item or by filling out a Document Delivery / Relais form. The Library will endeavour to find the requested item and retrieve it, regardless of the location of the owning institution. The time required to fill an Inter-Library Loan request will vary based on the location of the lending institution.

Your User Login is the 14 digit Barcode number on your ID card with no spaces and your Password is, by default, the last 4 digits of your phone number. 

There is generally no fee for this service, though rare items may incur a cost depending on the loaning institution.

User Education and Information Literacy

The Cape Breton University Library offers an array of instructional opportunities for students and faculty. The goals of our instruction program are to:

1. introduce students and faculty to available print and electronic resources
2. teach students and faculty to use these resources effectively
3. assist in graduating students equipped to live and work in the knowledge economy

We want our students to find, evaluate, and use information effectively to solve problems and make decisions.

Library Tours

Faculty can schedule library tours to assist in orienting students to the library, its services and policies, resources, and physical layout. One week notice is requested.

Course Specific Library Instruction

Faculty and instructors are encouraged to schedule course specific library instruction throughout the academic year. September, October, January, and February are peak times for instruction and you're advised to schedule early. Two week's notice is appreciated; however, all requests will be accommodated, schedule permitting.

To request course specific instruction, please contact your liaison librarian:
Cathy Chisholm, School of Science & Technology, Emergency Management, Health Studies and Nursing (563-1993)
Ron Rooth, School of Arts & Social Science, and Education (563-1996)
Laura Syms, Shannon School of Business (563-1994)

Faculty are encouraged to submit book order suggestions to the Liaison Librarian for their subject area.

Book Ordering Time Line

• February - memo sent to faculty reminding them of need to get suggestions into the Library by April 1st to ensure material, if approved by their liaison librarian, is ordered and arrives by September.
• April - suggestions should be submitted to ensure liaison librarians approve orders in time to likely arrive by September.
• June - suggestions submitted to liaison librarians after June may not be filled in the current fiscal year.

Information Services offers reference service and user education programs for the Library's clients.

A vital part of the education process is the collaboration between Librarians and Faculty to help students learn research, critical thinking and information literacy skills. Consulting with the Librarian assigned to your school before you give an assignment is a good way to ensure that resources are available and accessible for achieving the goals of the assignment. Also, it will assure that students are learning about the subject resources and technology that will help them in their present and future studies.

Alerting or current awareness services can be arranged through your school's Library Liaison. Stay on top of research in your field of study by registering for CISTI Source's Journal Contents Alerts or Article Alerts. Choose titles from over 20,000 multidisciplinary journals and/or create search strategies to identify articles relevant to your study. You'll be alerted by email whenever a table of contents is published or an article is published in your area of interest. Obtain articles by searching Cape Breton University's journal collection or using our Document Delivery services.