Generally, anyone (student, staff, faculty, community member) can contact the Information Desk and get reference assistance or ask a question about circulation. They can reach us in-person, by phone, email or online chat. Our librarians also take in-person and virtual appointments for more complex issues. In-depth research support is usually limited to SAIT's faculty and staff.
With students and members of the community, our reference processes emphasize teaching people to help themselves. However, with faculty and staff there is a greater emphasis on providing full answers, literature reviews or other packaged responses to queries (though, if an instructor wants improve their search skills, we'll certainly help them learn).
All of our information resources - whether physical or online - are accessible to SAIT students and staff. We don't have fee-for-search, or similar resources, that are used only by staff. Community borrowers have more restrictions on access, for instance: some e-resources are only accessible to community users that are physically at the library, while others are not accessible to community users at all. Community users also have more limitations on borrowing physical resources.
Like with reference and research, basic circulation support is open to anyone who contacts us. Circulation support is also offered by in-person, by phone, email or online chat,
Different types of borrowers have different limitations on what can be borrowed and for how long. Generally, we divide borrowers into 3 groups: students, staff and community. Staff and students are largely treated the same, being able to borrow most items for longer periods (up to a semester for many books). Community borrowers are people that are currently not employed by SAIT or are not enrolled as a students. They have more restrictions on what they can borrow and services they can access (for instance, most books can only be borrowed for 2 weeks by community borrowers).
We supplement our collections by providing interlibrary loan services to SAIT's students, staff and faculty. Most of the material we bring in on interlibrary loan is in the areas of humanities, social sciences, health sciences and education.
We also lend out materials to other libraries. Usually outgoing loans are technical manuals and industry codes or standards.
These services, and many others, are outlined more fully on the Library Policies page.
Find answers to common questions and tip sheets related to library services and resources on the Library FAQ and Self-Help guide.