Connect to the UofT wireless network on campus using your UTORid. If you've never signed on before, you'll need to verify your UTORid first, even if it works on Portal or other services.
At the time of your request, you will have chosen a pickup location. If you have forgotten, it will be included in the email pickup notice you receive.
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.
You can also proactively renew your items online through LibrarySearch by signing in to see MY LOANS. You can renew items from there.
It may be possible to renew items obtained via Interlibrary Loan, but only if the owning library agrees. Sign in to your LibrarySearch account and, under My Loans, select the Renew icon located next to your loan.
Selecting the Renew icon will prompt the owning library to either approve or reject the renewal request. Your loan is not considered renewed until the due date updates in your LibrarySearch account.
If no Renew icon is present next to your loan, then your loan is ineligible for renewal.
If you have a problem with any public computer, please send an email to icicle.support@utoronto.ca and if possible, include the six character computer ID displayed in the lower right corner of the desktop.
A feedback form is also available on the Start menu of all library computers which can also be used to send a report.
To borrow a book from another campus, first find it in the catalogue, then click on the title to see the full record of the item. Click the "Get It In Person" link to place your request. You will need to login with UTORid and password.
It usually takes 2-3 days for items to arrive by intercampus delivery. In some cases, it may take up to a week, and if the material is on loan, it will likely take longer.
You will receive an email when the item is ready to be picked up.
How do I reserve a table in the library for my student club?
The following libraries can accommodate tabling requests, available for booking by University of Toronto affiliated recognized student groups, staff and faculty:
Robarts Library (1st or 2nd floor, depending on the nature of the request and availability)
Selling food and drinks, including baked goods, is not permitted at the libraries, as well as the selling or distribution of products from external vendors (including items like books, banking and credit cards, etc.)
Student groups can also book spaces for their events around campus. Use the Campus Room Finder to see what is available.
For all food-related tabling and events with Campus Events, review their office’s guidelines and complete the required forms on their webpage. The library reserves the right to cancel reservations if the above conditions are not met, for safety reasons, and/or fire code violations.
Gerstein + MADLab 3D printing service is available to certified users, who have attended a training workshop and passed the certification test. Please visit https://gerstein.library.utoronto.ca/3d-printing-services for hours, pricing, upcoming trainings, and more information.
You can search for items by name of publisher in ADVANCED mode of library search, as in example 1.
You can also add other criteria to the search by selecting a date range, or searching for similar titles of books from one publisher, as in example 2.
Example 1: Searching for ALL items by an individual publisher
Drop down the field name menu to find PUBLISHER
Type in the name of the publisher.
Click on SEARCH
Results show books published by Tara Press in New Delhi.
From here you can use the filters on screen left to see ONLINE items only, or change the sort to newest first, or see what items by Tara Press are in Robarts stacks.
Example 2: Searching for SPECIFIC items available from a publisher
Oxford University Press publishes excellent handbooks in many subject areas, with titles following the form 'The Oxford handbook of [something]'.
This is how to search for all Oxford University Press handbooks.
You can then filter to show only ONLINE items. Here are the first four results found by such a search.
In the Search Results section (the default section) under "Bibliographic manager", click the radio button next to "Show links to import citations into" and change the drop down menu to RefWorks
Click Save
Send citations to RefWorks
After you save this setting, you will see an "Import to RefWorks" link until every Google Scholar search result.
When you click on that link, you'll be asked to sign in to your RefWorks account. If you're off campus, you'll need the U of T group code. Once you sign in, RefWorks will import the item from Google Scholar.
Send citations to Zotero
From the citation you want to send to Zotero, click on the cite icon (quotation marks) found underneath the citation:
Now choose RefMan. This will save it as a .ris file, which Zotero can use.
Double-click the scholar.ris file saved to your computer's downloads folder and the reference should now open up in Zotero.
The creation of misinformation continues to generate a lot of discussion and it’s no surprise that post-truth is now in the Oxford English Dictionary (and was Word of the Year in 2016). Although many news sources have some inherent bias or political leaning, there are news outlets that are more credible than others. The sites below can help you be more critical of the information and news sources you encounter.
Verifying news stories and images
FactCheck.org: monitors the accuracy of political stories, mainly from the U.S.
Snopes: fact-checks Internet rumours and stories. This will determine whether that post your cousin shared on Facebook re: gun violence in America has any merit.
Photo verification tools (compiled by International Journalists' Network): altered images and videos are also a cause of concern. These sites (along with Google Reverse Image Search) allows you to check images and videos on social media and websites.
Spotting misinformation
Refer to the ‘About Us’ area on a website to see what it says, and then search online for more information on the story or source. This is referred to as "Lateral Reading" (3:17 minute video).
Practise "click restraint" (2:19 minute video) and scroll through the list of search results instead of clicking on the top results. Taking the time to scan other headlines and results from multiple news sources allows you to see how (or if) other outlets are reporting on the same story.
Accessing credible news sources
Refer to U of T Libraries' Newspapers guide that provides paywall-free (=free!) access to many national and international newspapers through library databases.
Library of Congress call numbers are arranged alphabetically and numerically. Read call numbers from left to right and from top to bottom.
What do the numbers and letters in the call number actually mean?
LC call numbers begin with letters that represent subject divisions. Following the initial letters are numbers that help define the subject of the material.
This call number system allows materials on related subjects to be shelved in the same area. For example, if you go to the book shelves to locate the call number QP376 .A4225 2009, other books on Neurophysiology will be found nearby.
Shelving
Letters in the first line of the call number are shelved in alphabetical order.
Q QA QM RM
The second line of a call number is shelved in numerical order.
QA
QA
QA
QA
50
55
76
76.15
The third line is the trickiest part of the call number. The letter is shelved alphabetical. The numbers, however, are shelved in decimal order as if there was an invisible decimal between the letter and the number.
QR
QR
QR
QR
450
450
450
450
.K346
.K40
.K5
.L11
The final lines of the call numbers may include dates, volume indicators, and copy numbers. These annotations are read after the call number.