FAQs

Fines can be paid:

• Online
• In person at the circulation desk of some libraries 
• By telephone: 416-978-8450

• Find the item in the LibrarySearch
• Click GET IT from the left-side menu and then LIBRARY PICKUP, and fill out the request form that opens up
• If the item is available at multiple libraries, choose your preferred pickup location
• Click SEND REQUEST 

Please see the instructions for your operating system:

• Mac OS X 10.4.10 and above
• Windows

Wireless printing costs the same as regular printing for the location you are printing from.

If you want a book that has already been checked out to someone else for longer than two weeks, you can request that the book is returned early.

To place a recall request:

• Click GET IT from the left-side menu and then LIBRARY PICKUP, and fill out the request form that opens up
• Click SEND REQUEST 

You will receive an email notification when the book is available for you and have 7 days to pick it up. 

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.

Staff Login

Each record has three dots in the top right corner. Click on these for more options.

• A pop-up window will appear with a "Report a Problem" link 
• Click on this link to submit 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.

You can place an interlibrary loan request to get an item from another university delivered to a U of T library.

Eligibility and cost

• Free for current University of Toronto students and faculty members
• Charges apply for Research Readers, Alumni Readers, and Associate Member

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) 

• Gerstein Science Information Centre 

Tabling space at Robarts

Tabling space at Gerstein

Make a reservation request
 

Please Note! 

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.

Outside

Robarts Library outdoor book drop is located at street level at the St George Street entrance north of Hoskin Avenue.

Open 24 hours unless indicated otherwise.

Inside

Robarts Library self-serve book return machines are located on the ground floor behind the loans desk.

If the machine does not print a receipt for you when you return your book, go to the loans desk and ask a staff member to produce a receipt for you.

If the machine does not accept your book, use the manual book return located right beside the self-serve machine.

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.

 If you're off campus, make sure you use the library's version of Google Scholar.  You should see myaccess.library.utoronto.ca in the URL.

Change your Google Scholar settings

1. Go to Google Scholar
2. Click Settings
3. 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
4. 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. 

Logging into the new library search system depends on your user status.  If you are experiencing problems, see the HELP section.

Once you are in LibrarySearch, look for the SIGN IN buttton.

Clicking on it brings you to a box with two choices.

U of T community   |   Hospital staff

U of T community

• U of T current students, faculty, and staff
• External researchers *
• Alumni *

U of T community members: Sign in with your UTORid. If you have not used your UTORid before, this is how to find it.

* Alumni & external researchers

• In the past, you signed in with your library barcode and PIN
• This has changed because of the new library system
• You will be issued a UTORid so that you can log in to request loans or access your account information. 
• If you have questions about the change in access or need to be issued a UTORid, please contact the Reader Registration unit at reader.reg@utoronto.ca

Hospital staff

• Hospital staff: Sign in with your library barcode
• The first time you sign in to the new system, you will be prompted to reset your password.

To reset your password

• Click on RESET PASSWORD

• 
   
•  Enter your library barcode where it says User ID, or email address *associated with your account*
   
• 
   
• You will then get a password reset email

Not sure which group you belong to?

• Contact Reader Registration department at reader.reg@utoronto.ca to find out

Where do I get help?

• LibrarySearch login problems: Email reader.reg@utoronto.ca
• UTORid questions: Email reader.reg@utoronto.ca
• UTORid password reset questions/problems: Contact the Information Commons Help Desk help.desk@utoronto.ca or 416-978-4357
• Library barcode questions: Contact Reader Registration at reader.reg@utoronto.ca

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

1. FactCheck.org: monitors the accuracy of political stories, mainly from the U.S. 
2. PolitiFact: verifies political news stories.
3. 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.
4. 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 

1. 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).
2. 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.

(Source image: IFLA) 

Further websites and research on fact-checking and combating misinformation 

• Civic Online Reasoning (from Stanford Education Group): produces research reports, lessons, and videos focused on evaluating online content. 
• Duke Reporters' Lab Fact-Checking: maintains a database of global fact-checking sites.
• Media Bias/Fact Check: contains a search box to check media bias of news sources. 
• Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review: publishes timely peer-reviewed and open access research about misinformation.

One way to place an interlibrary loan request through LibrarySearch is by selecting "Interlibrary Loan Request" from the top banner.

You will be prompted to sign in, if you haven't already. Then, you will be taken to a blank interlibrary loan request form.

Provide as many details about the requested material as possible, and select a pickup location.

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.

An interlibrary loan request can also be placed on items from the U of T Libraries collection that are not currently available, or when your catalogue search returns no results. 

For the Robarts, Gerstein, Engineering & Computer Science, Mathematics, & Earth Sciences libraries:

• use this form to suggest titles or journals that the library should acquire
• if you are a faculty member suggesting a book purchase for short term loan or course reserves, see complete information

For the OISE Library:

• use this form to suggest titles or journals that the library should acquire

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.

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.

The final lines of the call numbers may include dates, volume indicators, and copy numbers. These annotations are read after the call number.

Example

The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind by John S. Allen.

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

Factiva's YouTube channel can help you learn the basics of searching for news.

ProQuest has a YouTube channel with instructional videos that cover the basics of searching in ProQuest databases.

For more personalized help, please contact library staff by phone, email, or chat.

Learn to use RefWorks online from video tutorials created by RefWorks'. Also consult the libraries RefWorks Guide.

• Getting started with RefWorks'
• RefWorks' YouTube channel

We offer live RefWorks training during the school year, so keep an eye on our workshops page.

3D Printing @ Gerstein + MADLab is a 3D printing studio located in the MADLab at the Gerstein Science Information Centre. The service includes in-person and remote service options.

The service is available for all University of Toronto students, staff, and faculty. To use the 3D printer, you must first complete a certification training. You do not need any prior 3D printing experience.

A Course Reserves search has been added to LibrarySearch.

As you start typing search words, you can choose to search for those words in just items placed in Course Reserves.

Search words can include the name of the course instructor as well as the course code and title.

• IMPORTANT: This search will not find everything on a course reading list since some material will only be provided to students of a particular class, not to all students at U of T
• The preferred way to see everything on a course reading list is to check in the Quercus course shell for that course.
• Searching by Course Code is not recommended since the codes need to be in an exact format
   

Different formats are found in Course Reserve search results

• The search results show a mix of online course reserves and print course reserves
• For print course reserves, check the library location listed in the catalogue record to know where to go.
• In Robarts, the physical course reserves are kept 1st floor loans desk.
   

Different filters appear in Course Reserve search results

• This example shows LIBRARY LOCATION, as well as INSTRUCTOR and COURSE CODE filters

What Course Reserve search will NOT find

• Journal articles
• Scanned copies of print books: This is copyrighted material, made available only to students in the class via the Quercus course shell.
• Book chapters of print or electronic books
• Videos
• Websites
• Material not owned by U of T Libraries