Welcome to Dalhousie University Libraries

With five libraries, two learning commonsarchival collections, a Geographical Information Sciences (GIS) Centre, and a Copyright Office, the libraries provide timely, context-sensitive service in person or online. Our Dean of Libraries is Michael Vandenburg. The senior leadership team consists of Associate Deans and other key positions within the Dalhousie Libraries, as outlined in the organizational chart

We belong to Novanet, a consortium of Nova Scotian university and community college libraries. Through Novanet, our users can tap into the library resources of the other post-secondary institutions in the province, as well as Live Help, an instant-messaging service that puts users in touch with librarians for a live chat version of the traditional reference interview. In addition, Document Delivery can bring you resources from library collections beyond Dalhousie and the other Novanet libraries.

The Dalhousie Libraries manage an electronic reserve system for faculty to submit reading lists in Brightspace. When required, we provide copyright clearance and assistance loading the documents into Brightspace. Librarians go into classrooms and teach information literacy skills linked to your upcoming assignments. We encourage serendipitous discovery by offering a little of the unexpected, most recently, access to 3D printing, and makerspace workshops.

We’re meeting the needs of researchers by providing a research data management planning service in DalSpace, the institutional repository. It contains e-theses by Dalhousie graduates, as well as faculty publications and research data sets.

We invite you to experience all that the Dalhousie Libraries have to offer, and to connect with us through social mediaemail, or in person. We are here to support your academic success. 

Dalhousie Libraries’ Mission and Vision

Our mission is three-fold:

  • To support teaching and learning through our innovative services and spaces — both physical and virtual — as well as through the dissemination of knowledge in all forms.

  • To be active partners in Dalhousie’s research endeavours through collaboration, dissemination, and management of information resources and to preserve Dalhousie’s scholarly output.

  • To provide inclusive and inviting spaces to enable our diverse communities to thrive intellectually.

Our vision

We strive to be a leading research library that inspires the creation, exploration, and discovery of knowledge in all forms through user-focused engagement with our diverse communities.

Read the Dalhousie Libraries' Strategic Alignment Plan.
 

Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries

 

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations recognizes and values the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the guarantor of the fundamental freedoms in Canada of conscience and religion; of thought, belief, opinion, and expression; of peaceful assembly; and of association.

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations supports and promotes the universal principles of intellectual freedom as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which include the interlocking freedoms to hold opinions and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

In accordance with these principles, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations affirms that all persons in Canada have a fundamental right, subject only to the Constitution and the law, to have access to the full range of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, and to express their thoughts publicly. Only the courts may abridge free expression rights in Canada.

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations affirms further that libraries have a core responsibility to support, defend and promote the universal principles of intellectual freedom and privacy.

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations holds that libraries are a key institution in Canada for rendering expressive content accessible and affordable to all. Libraries are essential gateways for all persons living in Canada to advance themselves through literacy, lifelong learning, social engagement, and cultural enrichment.

Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and facilitate access to constitutionally protected expressions of knowledge, imagination, ideas, and opinion, including those which some individuals and groups consider unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable. To this end, in accordance with their mandates and professional values and standards, libraries provide, defend and promote equitable access to the widest possible variety of expressive content and resist calls for censorship and the adoption of systems that deny or restrict access to resources.

Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and foster free expression and the right to safe and welcoming places and conditions. To this end, libraries make available their public spaces and services to individuals and groups without discrimination.

Libraries have a core responsibility to safeguard and defend privacy in the individual’s pursuit of expressive content. To this end, libraries protect the identities and activities of library users except when required by the courts to cede them.

Furthermore, in accordance with established library policies, procedures and due process, libraries resist efforts to limit the exercise of these responsibilities while recognizing the right of criticism by individuals and groups.

Library employees, volunteers and employers as well as library governing entities have a core responsibility to uphold the principles of intellectual freedom in the performance of their respective library roles.

You can find CFLA-FCAB’s Position on Third Party Use of Publicly Funded Library Meetings Rooms and Facilities: An Interpretation of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ Statement on Intellectual Freedom and Libraries here.

Approval History: June 27, 1974
Amended November 17, 1983; November 18, 1985; and September 27, 2015
Adopted August 26, 2016
Reviewed April 12, 2019