FAQs

"The stacks" refers to the main book shelves in any library.  

In Robarts Library, for example, the stacks are on floors 9 to 13.

To find your book in the stacks

• Get the call number of an available copy of the book (ex. PR4556 .W45 2000X)
• Go to the library the book is held at (ex. E. J. Pratt Library)
• Find the book stacks (ex. see Pratt Library floor map)
• Look for the section in the stacks that has the first letters of your call number (ex. PR is found on the ground floor of Pratt Library)

For help finding any book in any library's stacks, please ask at the library's reference desk.

In January 2021, the library upgraded to a new system. The classic catalogue was retired as part of this transition.    

The classic catalogue was a very useful workaround for lacks in our previous system. With this new system, it is no longer needed.

You can use LibrarySearch to look for books and other items and to check your account just like you once did in the classic catalogue. 

A call number is an address. It tells you where the book (or DVD or print Journal) is located within the library. A book’s call number appears in the University of Toronto Libraries library catalogue. In the library catalogue, the call number is written horizontally.

On the book spine, it appears vertically, making it easier to find a specific call number on the shelves. Each book (or other item) has its own unique call number, which is taped to the lower outside edge of the book’s spine.

LC Classification Subject Divisions

• A - General Works
• B - Philosophy, Psychology, Religion
• C – History - Civilization
• D - History – General (not U.S.)
• E - U.S. History
• F - U.S. Local History and Latin American History
• G - Geography, Anthropology, Recreation
• H - Social Sciences
• J - Political Science
• K - Law
• L - Education
• M - Music
• N - Fine Arts
• P - Language & Literature
• Q - Science
• R - Medicine
• S - Agriculture
• T - Technology
• U - Military Science
• V - Naval Science
• Z - Information Science

This entry has been adapted from this page by Mindy Thuna.

LibrarySearch is where you can search for books, articles, journals, videos, and other content that the library owns or subscribes to.   

WebsiteSearch is where you look for information about the library such as hours, locations, FAQs, IT support, and research guides. 

It surfaces pages about library services such as interlibrary loan, Scan & Deliver, computers and wifi, etc., and will also find content from research guides and FAQs.

We encourage Library users to make every effort to return their borrowed materials on time.

Items will automatically renew at the end of each loan cycle until your maximum renewal period is reached, unless your items have holds or recall requests. If you do not renew or return borrowed items on time, late fees will be charged. You can check your due dates online. 

You can also proactively renew your items:

1)  Online

2) By emailing libraryhelp@utoronto.ca 

You have a couple of options. You can request that a copy be returned early by placing a recall request, or you can submit an interlibrary loan (ILL) request to obtain it from another institution. Consider ILL if there are multiple requests on U of T copies, or if the item is missing or otherwise unavailable.

To submit an interlibrary loan request, first sign into LibrarySearch to see your request options. Once you are signed in, select "Get it from outside of U of T" in the item's record. 

An auto-populated request form will appear. Confirm the details are correct, choose a pickup location and select "Send Request". 

After your request is submitted, you can check your LibrarySearch account for updates on the status of your request(s). You will receive an email once your request is available.

You can also submit an interlibrary loan request using a blank request form, or when your catalogue search returns no results. 

Online

Our research guides can show you how to find government documents and statistics online. We have digitized much of our physical collection and made it available through the Internet Archive.

Many online items are listed in LibrarySearch. To find them, search for your topic or the relevant government agency and limit to online. Click the "Available Online" link to open the item.

In the library

Print copies of government documents and publications are housed in Robarts Storage and in our offsite storage location (Downsview), these items are available by retrieval request. 

Some government documents are available at Bora Laskin Law Library, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, OISE Library, and other locations - LibrarySearch will tell you where each item is located if it is not available online.

Help

• Government Information, Robarts Library
• Bora Laskin Law Library for legal sources

We love Google!  It's a great place to start searching for information, but if you're only using Google or Google Scholar to do university-level research, you're missing out.  Here are four good reasons to use the library when doing your research (besides the fact that your professor told you to):

1. Paywalls

Have you ever found a great article online, only to be asked to pay to view it? This happens to a lot of students, but you should never pay for articles because your tuition already gives you access to them through the library. Even if we don't have the article (or book or other material) in our collection, we can get it for you from another library at no cost to you.

2. Credibility

Literally anyone can publish something on the internet. So how do you know if a webpage you find is trustworthy or not?  There are lots of clues to help you figure it out, of course, but wouldn't it be nice not to have to worry so much?  

When you start searching from the library homepage you can trust that your faithful librarians, who are experts in the subjects studied at U of T, have curated a collection of the best and most scholarly sources for you. Instead of searching on the free web, why not try a controlled environment that has been customized for U of T students?

3. Findability

We have hundreds of subject-specific search engines (known as databases) that can help you find the best sources for your topic. Most of these search engines (including LibrarySearch) use special tags to make results more relevant.  You can use each search engine's filtering options to limit your results to the tags you want.

4. Diversity

“Library=books”, right? Well, yes, but that’s not the full story. University libraries nowadays have a huge variety of research materials that you probably wouldn't be able to access through Google. We’ve already mentioned scholarly journal articles, but we also have

• Data and statistics including health and business data
• Maps
• Historical documents, many of which have been digitized
• Online videos, including some feature films
• Current and historical newspapers from all over the world
• Rare books and manuscripts
• Dictionaries and encyclopedias

Pretty amazing if you ask us.

LibrarySearch can customize your experience based on your interests and eligibility.  We recommend that you sign in every time you use LibrarySearch.

Signing in grants you access to the licensed e-resources that are only available to current U of T students, faculty, and staff.  

Current members of the U of T community can login with their UTORid and password. Alumni and other community borrowers* can login with the credentials provided to them. 

Logging in allows you to: 

• Access full-text content, e.g., articles, books, if you are current student, faculty, or staff 
• See which request and access options are available to you 
• Check on your loans and requests 
• Renew your materials  
• Save items and searches to ‘My Favourites” so you can get to them later, and from other devices. 
• View your search history 
• Set up alerts for newly added materials 
• Pay library fines online 

*Note that licensed e-content is not available to alumni and other community borrowers.  

Book reviews are listed in our main article database:

• Start at the advanced search screen
• Type the title of the book you are search for reviews of in the search box
• Click "book review" in the list of available formats
• Click search

For more sources of book reviews, try the two research guides linked below under "more information".

There are about a dozen Toronto hospitals whose library collections appear in our catalogue. These items are for the staff affiliated with each hospital.

It might be possible to use items at these libraries, but you'll have to call the library that owns the item to see what their policies are. If they don't allow in-library use, you can always place an interlibrary loan to have it shipped to your campus.