FAQs

Several different systems are used to arrange books on the shelf across the University of Toronto's 40 libraries.  

In general, all of these systems are designed to:

  1. Help you find items on the shelf using a code found in the library catalogue called a "call number"
  2. Group similar items together on the shelf
  3. Describe the content and format of an item in the library catalogue

Library of Congress system

  • Used most often at the University of Toronto Libraries
  • Call number has both letters and numbers
    • E806 .G635 2012
    • UA600 .V36 1988
    • HC120 .L3 M37 2012
  • How to use it

Dewey Decimal

  • Used at OISE Library
  • Call number has mainly numbers, but letters are also sometimes present
    • 025.56 AL817L
    • 917.1 L786ca
    • 301.4120971 N277C
  • How to use it

Old Class

  • Used for books that were catalogued pre-1954 at many libraries
  • Robarts 9th floor storage – storage retrieval form
  • Call number has mainly letters with some numbers
    • P Med M
    • Pamph. HAm. S.
    • EcF G5784g
  • Developed at University of Toronto
  • How to use it [PDF] *Please note that the locations in this document are no longer correct.

CODOC

  • Used for many government documents and publications
  • Call number has both letters and numbers with punctuation interspersed
    • CA1..FN....-2006A11
    • US1..CM.100..S71
    • UN5..EWA.......-U51 1979+
  • Items are arranged on the shelf by country and government body, not by subject
  • How to use it

Audio Visual search terms

  • Used at the Media Commons
  • Call number has material format followed by number
    • VideoDVD 758910
    • Videocass 005288
    • AudioCD 450071
  • Developed at University of Toronto
  • Media Commons materials are retrieved only by staff, so you do not need to know how to use it.

External Researchers (direct borrowers, research readers, alumni borrowers, and alumni research readers) with paid-for library privileges and a valid Tcard with UTORid may access the internet by logging into any publicly available PC computer at Robarts Library and other participating University of Toronto libraries. WiFi is available only to University of Toronto staff, faculty, and students.

DynaMed is available via a mobile app, which can also be used offline.

To see instructions on how to install and authenticate this app, please visit our Mobile Health Science Resources Guide.

[Note: The DynaMed Mobile app was changed in Feb 2015 and no longer requires a serial number. If you had been using the Skyscape or Omnio apps to access the earlier version of DynaMed on your mobile device, you do not have to uninstall those apps to download/use the new DynaMed app. However, those apps will no longer be updated with the latest content, so it is recommended that you install the new DynaMed app].

To access Naxos from off campus, log in with your UTORid and password when prompted.

To access Naxos content on your mobile device, create a playlist account (PDF instructions) on the web version of Naxos and download the app for Apple or Android devices. 

Naxos Music Library is an electronic resource that allows University of Toronto affiliates to stream music online.  It has 87,000 tracks including the complete Naxos classical, jazz, world-music and historical releases, plus the complete Marco Polo, da capo catalogues.

Whether you're off or on campus, you'll need to sign in with your UTORid and password to connect to licensed electronic resources. Only current U of T students, faculty, and staff are eligible for e-resource access.

If you have an online resource bookmarked, make sure that the URL has https://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url= at the beginning followed by the link to the item you are trying to access.

Various libraries at the University of Toronto offer pre-arranged tours or self-directed tours. There are also virtual tours for you to view wherever you are!

Please visit our library tours page for more information.

The Robarts Library Audio/Video collection is available to borrow via online requesting only. The standard borrowing period is 14 days with no renewals. 

If you'd like to view this material on site, the 3rd floor of Robarts Library houses sixteen individual audiovisual carrels equipped with DVD and Blu-ray players for drop-in use anytime. The Robarts Library 1st floor Loans Desk also circulates portable DVD disc drives for personal use. 

Also available is a variety of specialized heritage equipment like VCRs, LaserDisc players, 16 mm film projectors, 35 mm slide projectors, and audiocassette players. Email media.commons@utoronto.ca to arrange for access to this equipment. 

 

Complete the Education Commons online form. Please select whether you are internal (OISE students and staff) or external. Note that you must book equipment 48 hours in advance.

You can cancel requests by signing into your LibrarySearch account. Click on "My Requests" and identify the item, then click "Cancel".

By using parentheses, you can ask a search engine to perform several Boolean searches at the same time.  It will first perform the search enclosed in parentheses before moving on to the other search terms.  This is called nesting.

Example: (England OR Britain) AND (Victorian OR industrial) AND women

This search will bring hits that contain all of the following criteria:

  1. either England or Britain
  2. either Victorian or industrial
  3. women

Update your Google Scholar settings

1. Go to Google Scholar click the three horizontal bars in the corner to view the menu

screenshot of google scholar with the hamburger menu highlighted

2. Click the cog icon to see Settings

cog icon in the Google Scholar menu

3. Click Library Links and search for toronto

4. Check the boxes next to "University of Toronto" links 

library links with toronto in the search box

4. Click Save. 

A Get it! U of T link will now appear next to articles in your search results.  Click on it to see if we have the article in our collection.

screenshot with Get it! link highlighted

Google Scholar includes books, book chapters, dissertations and all kinds of other materials as well as articles. The Get it! button won't work for these or for journal articles that are only available in paper.

Use the database's link to the article

Most database provide a permanent link in the detailed information about the article.  As long as "myaccess.utoronto.ca" appears in the link, it will work.

Create your own

  1. Take the URL of the article as it appears in your browser.
  2. Add "http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=at the beginning of your URL.  It will look like this: http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=http://www.sciencedirect…

This will only work for articles that the library has access to.

If you have the call number of a book in the stacks at Robarts Library, but aren't sure where to find it, the Robarts Library stack guide will show you which floor your book is shelved on.  Look at the first letter(s) of the call number to see which floor it is on. 

book call number

For example, if your book is in Robarts stacks and the call number is PS3622 .U96 O52:

  1. Go to the 13th floor because the stack guide shows that all books with call numbers starting with PS are found there
  2. Then look at the signs on the end of the shelf rows to find the PS's
  3. Then find the PS3600s within that row
  4. Then find the PS3622s and continue on "reading" the call number from left to right
  5. By the time you find the PS3622.Us, you should be able to locate your book by reading titles of the books on the spines nearby

There are a few options available to you:

  1. You can check TSpace, the university's research repository. TSpace holds Masters theses and Doctoral dissertations from 2009 onwards as well as some older digitized materials.
     
  2. You can check Library and Archives Canada Thesis Portal that contains many electronic theses and dissertations from the University of Toronto
     
  3. You can search Dissertations & Theses: Full Text (ProQuest).
     
  4. You can search the library catalogue. Once you have done a keyword search for your topic, you can use the 'Format' category to the left to filter just the theses.You will first need to click on 'Books' - if there are theses available, they will be displayed. You could also use 'thesis' as one of your keywords in your search.
     
  5. Older dissertations and theses are available through the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services (UTARMS) The Archives holds Masters theses from 1897 - 1989 and Doctoral theses from 1900 - 1985. https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/university-of-toronto-archives-and-records-management-services :

Gerstein

Robarts

Kelly Library (St. Michael's College)

For specific questions related to using Covidence, including troubleshooting, check out Covidence’s Knowledge Base or contact Covidence Support at support@covidence.org

Learn how to use Covidence from Covidence’s YouTube Channel or tune-in to their monthly webinar for new users. 

Please contact Larysa Woloszansky, Director, Library Communications at larysa.woloszansky for:

  • Media requests
  • University of Toronto students wanting to film for a course assignment
  • University of Toronto departments

For commercial and all other filming requests, please contact the Film Liaison Officer at the University of Toronto's Campus Events Office. 

Please note that permission is granted on a case-by-case basis and, if granted, is scheduled in advance to minimize disruption to library users.

Search for two or more words as a unit by putting them in quotation marks:

  • "body image"
  • "social media marketing"

This is also useful when searching for titles or phrases (such as lyrics):

  • "The Great Escape"
  • "I wanna hold em like they do in Texas please"

Caution iconThis can sometimes eliminate relevant results, especially if you aren't using the correct words or order of the words.  For example, "Facebox flounder Marx Zuckerborg" will not get you results for "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg."

Caution iconSome indexes and databases will automatically treat as phrases any search terms that are not connected by AND or OR.  The Ovid search interface works like this. For example, a search for women politics might only find records where the terms women and politics are right next to each other.

You can see what is checked out to you by signing into your library account in LibrarySearch.

1. Go to the LibrarySearch main page at https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca

Look for the SIGN IN button on the top right of the screen.

screen capture of sign in button in LibrarySearch

2. OR, click on MY ACCOUNT right from U of T Libraries homepage

screen capture of my account link on library homepage

Once you have signed in with your UTORid and password, drop down the little arrow next to your name to see options.

Pick MY LOANS.

This brings you to a list of the items that are currently signed out to you.

This screen shows some of my loans as of February 18, 2021.

Every day there’s new and sometimes conflicting information and research coming out about COVID-19 origins, prevention, symptoms, treatments, and potential cures or vaccines.

Unfortunately, medical misinformation is spreading even faster. Sometimes, it’s scientific studies being badly misinterpreted. Other times, it's more deceptive. Buying into misinformation could lead to dangerous consequences for your health and the health of your loved ones.

The next time someone shares a COVID-19 ‘fact’ via text or social media, verify it before you share it! Use this checklist to protect yourself from the COVID-19 infodemic:

1. Verify what fact-checking organizations have to say:

2. Confirm what the CURRENT medical evidence says from authoritative health-focused sites:

  • iHealth Facts:  Check the reliability of a COVID-19 claim, which is verified against the current scientific literature
  • Snopes Medical:  Check internet rumours and stories - like your cousin’s Facebook post about sipping garlic water to fight the coronavirus (Spoiler: it doesn’t work!)

3. Read beyond the headline (or copied + pasted Facebook post):

a) Check the source(s)

  • Is a link or citation to any studies mentioned? Or is there only a vague line about ‘’science says...” or “studies show…”?
  • Note the date of the article or social media post. With thousands of COVID-19 papers coming out weekly, the information could soon be out-of-date.
  • Given the urgency, there can be much excitement about a single study, and is often taken as definite proof. Though promising at first, the study cited could have since been discredited (e.g. as was the case with one of the first studies on the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine)

Pro tip: Double check the study that’s being cited to see if it’s been red-flagged in Retraction Watch’s COVID-19 section

b) Check what other trusted places report  

  • Have the same findings been reported in many credible media outlets? Or are you only seeing this on social media or just one news site?
  • Do other medical or public health experts provide their opinion and explain what the findings could mean for the real world? Just ONE study on 10 people what works for the general population
  • Even if a political figure states something about COVID-19, they could be misinterpreting scientific studies, or misrepresenting the findings to serve a political agenda

Pro tip: Fact check the statement using non-partisan sites like FactsCan or FactCheck.org

c) Scan for bias and deception in the tone, word choice, and images

Pro tip: Use a reverse image search engine to figure out if it’s been altered or taken out of context, with tools like Google Reverse Image Search, TinEye, YouTube Data, or Serelay

(L: Screenshot of a forwarded WhatsApp message of a purported memo sent by a Stanford Hospital board member (March 13, 2020); R: Tweet from Stanford University refuting the hoax message (March 13, 2020))

 

d) Check the credentials/reputation of the researcher

  • Dig even deeper into the expert being cited! Even if their credentials seem legitimate at first glance (e.g. a PhD or an MD), do a Google search to see their reputation among other experts. Has their research been strongly supported, or widely debunked? 

Pro tip: Search for the expert’s name along with keywords like ‘retraction’, ‘fabrication’, ‘falsified data’, ‘scientific misconduct’, ‘pseudoscience’ or ‘conspiracy theory’

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For credible sources of health information on COVID-19:

Further readings:

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How do I cite this FAQ resource?

You are welcome to share this FAQ with others, or adapt/reuse it and its content. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . You are free to share, copy, adapt, or transform upon this material under the following terms:

1) Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made

2) NonCommercial: You may not use these materials for commercial purposes

3) ShareAlike: If you mix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original

If you are linking to or adapting this resource, here are some examples of how to cite this:

Example 1:

"How can I spot misinformation about the coronavirus and COVID-19?" by the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto Libraries used under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0/modified from original.

Example 2:

Ulrich's Periodical Directory can tell you if the journal that your article comes from is peer reviewed.

Look up the journal title Ulrich's. Remember that you are searching for the journal that the article comes from, not the article itself.

screenshot of ulrich's search screen

The referree jersey icon referee jersey icon tells you if the journal is peer reviewed.

screenshot of ulrich's search results screen

Not every kind of article published in a peer reviewed journal is peer reviewed. Articles like editorials and book reviews do not go through the peer review process, but primary research articles do.

This question applies to any discipline, not just psychology.  There are several strategies that can help you determine the discipline of a journal.

Check Ulrich's Periodical Directory.

If you look up the journal title in Ulrich's, the "subject classification" information will show the journal's primary discipline(s).

screenshot of ulrich's journal detailed information

Look at the journal's homepage.

Most journals have an official website that explains the scope and discipline of the journal.  To find it, Google the journal's full title, it should be one of the first few hits.  Ulrich's also lists the official journal homepage.

Find it in LibrarySearch

When you find your journal in LibrarySearch, click on the title to view all of the journal's details.  Scroll down to see the subjects assigned to the journal.

screenshot of subjects in journal record details

Learning effective library research strategies can save you a lot of time and energy in the long run. 

Workshops and webinars

One on one support

Online tools