Research Collections

Our Featured Research Collections are significant collections held by Western Libraries that are used for in depth research.


Arts & Humanities, Information & Media Studies, and Social Science

The D.B. Weldon Library supports the faculties of Arts & Humanities, Information & Media Studies, and Social Science.

Weldon houses:

  • print books and periodicals
  • research materials in microfiche and microfilm format that can be used in the library
  • a full array of bibliographic databases
  • primary source collections in digital format, such as: State Papers Online, 1509-1782; Artstor Digital Library; and Eighteenth Century Collections Online

The D.B. Weldon Library's physical collection includes City of London government documents, material related to First Nations Studies, and works by local poets.

Weldon Library also houses a large collection of research material including:

  • an extensive array of historical Southwestern Ontario newspapers published in London and the surrounding area
  • major Canadian and international newspapers
  • Canadian government publications included in the Canadian Research Index Microlog collection
  • specialized subject collections including Early English Newspapers, Early British Periodicals, and American Periodicals Series I (1741-1800) and Series II (1800-1850)
  • the Oregon Physical Education Thesis Collection, including masters and doctoral theses from across the United States on the subjects of health, physical education, and recreation

Email wlccsweldon@uwo.ca for further collections support in these subject areas.

Business

The C.B. "Bud" Johnston Library provides access to:

  • 14,000+ monographs
  • approximately 60 business online databases, including specialized finance resources
  • 8 dedicated Bloomberg terminals
  • Electronic access to e-book and journal packages from publishers such as Business Expert Plus, Edward Elgar, Elsevier, Oxford University Press, Emerald, Kluwer, Springer, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley
  • Online magazine and newspaper subscriptions including The Financial Times, The Economist, Press Reader, and more

Specialized collections include:

The Howard Canadian Business History Room

  • A collection of approximately 600 volumes located on the mezzanine level of the Johnston Library
  • Centred on the history of business in Canada, from the origins of the fur trade to technology companies in the present date
  • A particular focus is placed on Canadian corporations such as Bombardier, Blackberry, Seagram's, the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as (auto)biographies of Canadian business people 

Historical Company Corporate Reports

  • A collection of original paper annual reports available through the C.B. "Bud" Johnston Business Library
  • Covers more than 60,000 annual reports from more than 8,900 companies
  • Reports date back to the late 1800s
  • Hundreds of thousands of company annual reports and other filings in microfiche format stored in the Archives and Research Collections Centre

Specialized graduate resources include: 

  • SDC Platinum
  • Compustat via WRDS
  • Bloomberg
  • Capital IQ
  • CRSP via WRDS
  • CFMRC via CHASS
  • Economics databases supported by other Western Libraries locations including IMF, OECD, World Bank, ILO

Email wlccsteam@uwo.ca for further collections support in this subject area.

Education

The Education Resource Centre holds print and online collections supporting Applied Behaviour and Analysis, Counselling and Counselling Psychology, Educational Research Methodologies and Theories, Early Childhood Education, and more.

The Education Resource Centre provides access to key educational databases containing leading educational journals, as well as materials supporting teaching theory, methodology, curriculum, and pedagogy.

Specialized collections include: 

  • Inclusive Education and Exceptionalities resources
  • Multicultural, Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice collections
  • First Nations, Metis, and Inuit (FNM&I) Knowledge Sharing Collection
  • The Educational Leadership collection
  • English and French books for children and young adults
  • Classroom-related teaching resources such as puppets, manipulatives, models, and games
  • The Ontario Ministry of Education's authorized K-12 textbook collection

Email wlccsteam@uwo.ca for further collections support in this subject area.

Health Sciences, Medicine, and Dentistry

The Allyn & Betty Taylor Library provides access to scholarly books and journals in both print and online formats in the faculties of Health Sciences, Medicine, and Dentistry.

Taylor Library subscribes to relevant databases and journals in life and physical sciences, such as:

  • PubMed/Medline
  • Embase
  • CINAHL
  • Cochrane Library
  • BIOSIS
  • Faculty of 1000

Taylor Library also provides access to the following collections:

  • The Health and Wellness collection
  • Suite of Point-of-Care Clinical Tools including DynaMed, Micromedex, and eCPS
  • Interactive 3D Anatomical Atlases via Anatomy.tv
  • AccessMedicine (60+ titles) and Books@Ovid (1434 titles) eBook collections
  • Henry Stewart Talks' Biomedical and Life Sciences collection

Email wlccstaylor@uwo.ca for further collections support in these subject areas.

Law

The John & Dotsa Bitove Family Law Library is located on the second floor of the Law Building.  The library collects material in paper and digital formats including:

  • primary materials, such as case reports, statutes, and regulations
  • secondary materials, such as treatises and law journals
  • finding aids, including indexes, digests, and abridgements

Key aspects of the Law Library's operations include the provision of research assistance to library users, and instruction on how to use legal materials.

Email wlccsteam@uwo.ca for further collections support in this subject area.

Maps, GIS, and Data

The Map and Data Centre, located in The D.B. Weldon Library, holds the following collections:

  • Local, Canadian, and international resources
  • 240,000 print maps
  • 2,300 atlases 
  • 62,000 air photos
  • 60 globes
  • Data and statistics (e.g., Statistics Canada, ICPSR, Public Opinion Surveys)
  • Geospatial data (e.g., City of London, DMTI, OCUL Scholars GeoPortal)

Specialized collections include:

Canadian Fire Insurance Plans

  • These plans date back to 1881, with coverage of select towns and cities in Canada
  • Format includes print and online digitized versions (90-year copyright restriction applies)

Real Time Remote Access (RTRA) from Statistics Canada

  • Produces summary statistics and cross-tabulations from restricted access files at Statistics Canada, with mediated access provided through Map and Data Centre

Postal Code Conversion File (PCCF/PCCF+)

  • Provides linkage between postal code and census geography in order to merge socioeconomic characteristics from the Canadian census to research data based on postal geography

Building Heights for the city of London

  • Geospatial boundaries of all buildings in the built area (2012) containing building height attributes, with the ability to map in 3 dimensions

Aerial Photos

  • The focus is on Southwestern Ontario with coverage dating back to 1922
  • Formats includes print, online digitized, and georeferenced versions (50 year copyright restriction applies)

Canadian historical topographic series

  • One of the most comprehensive collections dating back to the 19th century.  Series and scales vary
  • Includes print, online, and georeferenced versions

Various digitized collections can be accessed from:

Email wlccsteam@uwo.ca for further collections support in these subject areas.

Music

The Music Library, located in Talbot College, provides access to:

  • Printed music from all over the world
  • Over 30,000 CDs and DVDs, in addition to streaming audio and video databases such as the Met Opera on Demand, Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall, Medici.tv, and Naxos Music Library
  • Scholarly books and dissertations in both print and online formats
  • Music-related magazines and scholarly journals (online and in print)
  • Performance materials for vocal and instrumental ensembles
  • Rare materials (over 3,500 items dating back to as early as the 16th century)
  • Original manuscripts
  • Microfilm collections (manuscripts, scores, libretti)

Specialized collections include:

The Gustav Mahler - Alfred Rosé Collection

  • Over 521 personal letters from Mahler, chiefly to his sister Justine
  • More than 130 "celebrity letters" to Gustav Mahler and Arnold Rosé
  • Manuscript scores, including Gustav Mahler's earliest known composition ("Josephinen Lieder") and the earliest known example of his orchestral writing
  • Photographs
  • Concert programs, personal and professional documents, and miscellaneous Mahleriana
  • Correspondence, photographs, concert programs, and other documents relating to lives and careers of the Rosé family (Arnold Rosé, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic and brother-in-law of Mahler, and his children, Alma Rosé, violinist, and Alfred Rosé, composer, pianist, and Western Music faculty member)

The Opera Collection

This collection contains over 2,200 volumes, primarily rare manuscripts and printed first editions of operas and libretti produced between 1597 and 1900.

The Drs. James & Margaret Whitby Collections

A significant collection of antiquarian chamber music, which includes early editions of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven alongside works of their contemporaries; namely, Boccherini, Cambini, Gyrowetz, Peter Hänsel, Krommer, Onslow, Pleyel, the Rombergs, and Spohr.

The Metastasio Collection

An adjunct to the Opera Collection, the Metastasio Collection gathers together 375 printed editions and microfilm copies of scores and libretti in an effort to facilitate scholarly research into the works of Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782).

The Thomas Baker Collection

"The music collection of Thomas Baker of Farnham, Surrey, is a remarkable phenomenon-for it appears to have been quite untouched from the time of Baker's death (c1773) to the present day. Its contents, representative of the educated musical amateur's tastes, include works ranging from short keyboard pieces to opera." Richard MacNutt, 1985.

Louis Achille Delaquerrière Album

Delaquerrière was a singer at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, a vocal arts teacher, and a composer. As a sought-after singer and voice teacher, he was part of the cultural elite of his time (1870s to 1930s). Throughout his career he collected mementos and documents and included them in his album.

The album contains correspondence from:

  • Famous composers (Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel)
  • Performers (Emma Calvé)
  • Literary figures (Guy de Maupassant, Jean Rictus)
  • Painters (Charles Léandre, Giuseppe de Nittis)
  • Sculptors and students (Paul Franz)
  • Manuscript music scores, music programmes, art sketches, menus, stamps, postcards, photographs, and clippings - many from the First World War

Email wlccsteam@uwo.ca for further collections support in this subject area.

Science and Engineering

The Allyn & Betty Taylor Library provides access to scholarly books and journals in both print and online formats in the faculties of Engineering and Science.

Taylor Library subscribes to relevant databases and journals in physical sciences and engineering, such as:

  • IEEE Xplore
  • SciFinder
  • One Petro
  • ASCE
  • ASTM
  • American Chemical Society
  • Royal Society of Chemistry

Email wlccstaylor@uwo.ca for further collections support in these subject areas.