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Libraries & Cultural Resources

Research Guides

Northern Studies

This guide will assist researchers in locating information resources as they relate to the north and Arctic regions.

Find Books

 

Finding Information Related to the North

The Arctic Institute of North America collections can be a challenge to access.  Please do not hesitate to ask for assistance through the library chat service. 

To find a book or journal in the library use the library search box linked below.  If you have a specific title or author use the Advanced Search.

Current Collection

The University of Calgary Library has a strong collection of materials dealing with northern issues, not all of these materials are housed within the Arctic Institute of North America Collection.  To locate books, journals, conferences, government reports, field guides, thesis, and maps that are held by the University of Calgary, use the library search box linked below.   

Material may be located in a number of areas within the University of Calgary Library.  Items held within the Arctic Institute of North America collection will list the location as Arctic Institute of North America.  Take note of the location code, because not all material related to the North is located within the Arctic Institute of North America collection. 

Pre-1978 Collection

Some of the material collected while the Arctic Institute of North America Collection was housed at McGill University, can only be accessed using the Card Catalogue located in the basement of the Gallagher Library adjacent to the AINA collection.  This older material is organized according to an in-house universal decimal classification system based on geographic area.  The cards are filed in the drawers in two sections: Subject and Author/Title.

To browse this collection, you will want to familiarize yourself with the decimal system.  The first number before the decimal point indicates the country or geographic area with which the material is concerned.

1: Alaska
2: Antarctica
3: Canada
4:Greenland
5:Scandinavia
6:Svalbard
7:Russia(USSR)
8:Polar Basin
9:Generalia

Additional digits before the decimal point are for subdivisions of these geographic areas.  These additional numbers are in fact decimal numbers and are filed as such.  Numbers after the decimal point further divide the material into subject categories within the specific geographical region.  The broad categories are as follows:

1:native peoples
2:biology
3:geoscience
4:snow, ice, permafrost, hydrology
5:meteorology
6:medicine
7:law, politics, government, economics
8:communications
9:history 

These may be further subdivided.  Materials are organized first by geographic areas, then within the categories.  For example a sequence of items would appear in the order 1.13, 11.21, 2.41, 29.92, 3.13, 315, 32, 9.21, 99.25.

Find Books We Don't Have

University of Calgary students, faculty and staff can obtain books, copies of journals articles and other documents not held in the the U of C Library through our Interlibrary Loan service.

Libraries & Cultural Resources