Library:Help for Graduate Students
Download the Graduate Student Guide.
Getting Started
Learning, knowledge, research, insight: welcome to UBC Library, the second largest research library in Canada.The Library has more than ten branches and divisions, including on- and off-campus locations and its Okanagan campus location.The Library's collections include more than 6.5 million items, and it offers students, faculty and staff a wide range of services, including one-on-one research help, workshops, interlibrary loans, document delivery, off-campus access to ebooks and online articles, data services, a GIS lab, microform readers & scanners and much more.
Library Services
Hours/Locations
- Hours & Locations
- Guided Library Tours
- Workshops
- Graduate Student Orientation to the Library in 30 Minutes (online)
Library Research Commons
The Research Commons provides support services produced by graduate students, for graduate students. Choose from a workshop or a one-on-one consultation to learn how to:
- Work with GIS and geospatial data.
- Use digital tools to advance your research.
- Use either of two popular citation management tools, Mendeley or Zotero, to save your citations and format your works cited list.
- Perform quantitative analysis with SPSS software.
- Manage your research data.
Ask a Librarian
Every branch of the Library has staff who can help you find what you need. Looking for articles, primary sources, data or statistics to support your research?
- Don’t hesitate to ask us for assistance at the reference desk, via email, and/or online chat.
- Or make an appointment with your subject librarian, who can provide personalized help with your research.
Where are?
- Public Computers & Software
- Printers, Copiers and Scanners
- Data/GIS Labs & Software
- Group & Silent Study Areas
- Electronic Resources: Current UBC students can access licensed Library resources with their valid Campus-Wide Login (CWL) or UBCcard barcode.
How do I?
Access & Borrowing
Connect to Library Resources
As a UBC student, you have full access to the wide range of print and electronic collections through the Library from off-campus, as well as in person. To get instant access to online Journals, Indexes & Databases, and other Library licensed resources from off-campus locations, see Connect to Library Resources.
Library Cards
- Your UBCcard is your Library card.
- You can also apply for Reciprocal Borrowing privileges at many other Canadian and U.S. post-secondary institutions.
Borrower Services
- Log into your account to:
- change your PIN
- renew items
- pay your fines online
- set up email reminders for item due dates
- Borrowing between UBC Campuses (Document Delivery )
- Borrowing from non-UBC Libraries (Interlibrary Loan)
- Disabillity Access (Information & services for people with disabilities)
- Access Course Reserves
Researching
Contact a Librarian
Research Guides
- Research Guides: Need articles for a project and don’t know where to start? Search our subject-specific guides for help with your research.
- Primary Sources
- Government Publications
- Newspapers and News Sources
Search Tools
- Search Summon by Keyword
- Indexes & Databases and Articles
- Open Collections
- cIRcle (UBC's institutional repository)
- contains most of the theses & dissertations produced by UBC students since 1919
- WorldCat (searches 10000+ Library catalogues)
Citing & Bibliographies
Copyright
Copyrighted materials are everywhere—you produce them and you use them every day. Be responsible in your research and studies: know what you can and can’t do under copyright law. Infringing copyright is a serious matter. Find information about copyright, UBC’s requirements and more at Copyright at UBC.
Writing
Your Thesis/Dissertation
- Copyright at UBC: contains links to information about copyright law in Canada, resource guides, an FAQ and much more. Of particular interest:
- The Graduate Thesis: your guide to find UBC's Faculty of Graduate Studies requirements for your thesis proposal, as well as research ethics and planning and defending your thesis. Of particular interest:
- Dissertation & Thesis Preparation: contains links to format requirements, a sample thesis and how to include published material in your work.
- cIRcle: UBC’s digital repository for research and teaching materials created by the UBC community, openly accessible to anyone on the web. This is where you will ultimately submit your final thesis/dissertation.
- See the Final Dissertation & Thesis Submission for more information.
- Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication (Vancouver campus): supports graduate-level writing. Join the writing community to work on your projects every week with the support of your peers or book an appointment to see a graduate writing consultant.
- Centre for Scholarly Communication (Okanagan campus): provides workshops and one-on-one consultations about all aspects of scholarly communication, including writing support for theses, dissertations, journal articles, grant proposals, and conference presentations, as well as copyright, open access, and author rights.
Looking for theses?
- Theses & Dissertations: UBC, Canadian, North American and international theses.
Your Research Data
- Research Data Management: website developed and maintained by UBC Library that provides valuable information and resources related to UBC's Research Data management strategy. If you are producing, reusing or interested in preserving and sharing your research data, please visit the site.
Beyond the Thesis/Dissertation
- Creating & Managing an Academic Profile: guide to the skills and tools you need for discussing, interacting, presenting, writing, commenting, and finally publishing your research.
- Citation Metrics Workshop: explains how to use citation analysis tools to measure the impact of articles, books, journals and individual researchers.
- Scholarly Communications @ UBC: UBC's information portal for those interested and/or involved in scholarly authorship and publication.
Teaching
Online Course Reserves & Readings
- Using Course Reserves: learn about managing course reserves & readings in Canvas and Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR) Standalone.
Your Teaching
- Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology
- Guide to Finding Persistent URLs: create persistent links to articles, books & other materials.
- Copyright @UBC Instructor FAQs
Media Services