Hello and welcome to SFU Library!
The Library is open to Indigenous students, faculty and staff, and visitors. For more information on getting started at the Library (e.g., getting your library card, checking out books, interlibrary loans), please refer to our Services for Undergraduate Students, Research Commons (services for graduate students), and Services for Mature Students guides.
Library collection
The Library has many books, journal articles, and more in online and print format. You are welcome to make use of them. A significant portion of the SFU Library collection is electronic and thus can be easily accessed from off-campus. Start with Library Search to find books, journal articles and other types of information.
Some print materials may be accessed via the library's Telebook service. Telebook service provides delivery of print material such as library books and journal articles to eligible students who are not readily able to visit the library and check out materials themselves.
Indigenous students eligible for Telebook services include:
- those SFU or Thompson Rivers University Open Learning TRU-OL students enrolled in an SFU distance education course,
- Indigenous students currently registered in the SFU Faculty of Education, and
- those Indigenous students who are registered in a course where special Telebook privileges have already been arranged.
Non-eligible Indigenous students may use Telebook for a fee.
Librarian services
SFU librarians are always happy to help Indigenous students with their research. We assist Indigenous students with a wide range of questions, for instance:
- recommending particular resources for finding information on your topic
- suggesting the best strategy to approach your research question
- helping with search techniques
- citing documents in a reference list/bibliography
- helping you track down hard-to-find items.
The Indigenous Initiatives Librarian and Liaison for Indigenous Studies is Jenna Walsh. Please contact the liaison librarian for the course or field you are working in, if you require research assistance.
If you are conducting research on Indigenous topics, see the guide, Indigenous Studies Research Resources, which outlines the key databases, journals, encyclopedia/reference sources, associations, and more that may inform your research. Similarly, we maintain research guides for all of SFU's teaching disciplines that will point you to key resources. Browse research guides by your subject area.
The Library also offers a variety of course-oriented library workshops. See the schedule of these workshops, or Ask Us.
Student Learning Commons
The Student Learning Commons provides writing and learning support services to Indigenous students across all three SFU campuses, through:
- workshops
- personal consultations
- print and online resources
- classroom collaborations with faculty and other instructors.
Citation management tools
Citation or reference management tools collect your journal article, book, or other document citations together in one place, and help you create properly formatted bibliographies in almost any style — in seconds. Citation management tools help you keep track of your sources while you work and store your references for future use and reuse.
Indigenous research
The library is currently working on making research with Indigenous perspectives more identifiable to researchers. In particular, we have worked with the Indigenous Students Centre to create an SFU First Nations Scholarly Community in SUMMIT - SFU Library's Research Repository where works with an Indigenous perspective are readily identifiable.
The SFU Research Repository is a full-text collection of SFU-produced scholarly documents relating to teaching, learning, or research. All Indigenous faculty and graduate students may submit their scholarly output (e.g., journal articles, dissertations, scientific data sets, etc.) for inclusion. Once in the Repository, these materials become readily available to a wider audience, accessible to researchers around the world for free via the web.
If you are interested in locating SFU theses or dissertations with an Indigenous perspective, we have a general guide for locating theses at SFU library.
Please feel free to contact your liaison librarian if you require further assistance locating graduate research projects of interest.
Additional links
You are welcome to make use of the services offered by SFU's Indigenous Students Centre.
Working on your term paper, thesis or dissertation? Save yourself a lot of time with Thesis Assistance: Templates and Resources for Preparing and Submitting.