Seven UM libraries, along with our print collections, will be opening for students, faculty and staff beginning February 28, 2022, with extended hours. 

Hours beginning February 28

8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday to Friday
10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday

• Elizabeth Dafoe Library 
• Science & Technology Library 
• E. K. Williams Law Library 
• Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library (Bannatyne) 

8: 30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday

• Architecture/Fine Arts Library 
• Archives & Special Collections (Contact Archives for an appointment.)
• Eckhardt-Gramatté Music Library 
• Father Harold Drake (St. Paul’s College) Library

KN95 masks will be available at all open libraries.

Group study rooms

Group study rooms are available for booking at Dafoe, Health Sciences, Science & Technology, Music, and Agriculture.

Book group study rooms

Print collections

Print collections will be open to faculty, staff, and students for browsing and self-checkout is available in all locations.

Request and retrieve items at our pickup lockers at Dafoe and Health Sciences Libraries or at any open library location.

Scan on demand service is available for print materials and we will obtain electronic copies of materials wherever possible for those who are not in Winnipeg through the end of the Winter Term.

Request materials

Digital collections

The Libraries continues to provide access to 5.2 million e-books, and over 30,000 electronic journals through Library Search in addition to the 1.5 million print volumes in our collection.

With UM physical collections now open, in-copyright print items available at the libraries will no longer be accessible through the HathiTrust Digital Library. Instructors using this part of the collection with UMLearn have been contacted to make other arrangements.

More than two million public domain titles are still available from HathiTrust and are discoverable via your Library search. 

Search our collections

Help

As always, please contact your subject librarian or click the Ask Us icon on our webpages for help with accessing the collections or obtaining materials.

Halloween 2020 will see the release of the completed digital archives of the Spiritualism and psychical research publication. The 1932-1967 issues were released earlier; this year the remaining 1968-2010 archives will be made available online for the first time to the public on Saturday October 31, 2020 on UM Digital Collections.

About Psychic News

Founded by British journalist Maurice Barbanell in 1932 with support from Hannen Swaffer and MJ. Arthur Findlay, the British spiritualist newspaper ran until 2010 and is now a monthly magazine, which during the current pandemic, is available in digital format only.

First page of the first issue of Psychic News published on May 28, 1932

The University of Manitoba Libraries’ Archives & Special Collection’s Psychic News digital archive comprises of 4,125 items, including special advertising supplements and book lists. Learn more about the history of Psychic News and the background of the digital archive project.  

More on the Winnipeg Connection

The University of Manitoba Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections hold the Hamilton Family fonds which includes a variety of images from séances in the Hamilton’s home on 185 Henderson Highway. Here is one example of the photographs in the collection. Pictured here are mediums (L-R) Elizabeth Poole and Mary Marshall during a séance on March 10, 1930. The man in the photo is Dr. T.G. Hamilton. 

University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, Hamilton Family fonds, Group VII, #28

On August 17, 1963 Psychic News dedicated a full page to the passing of the Hamilton family’s medium, Mary Marshall stating:

“The passing of Mrs. Mary Marshall in her 83^rd year brings to a close a 30-year period of brilliant all-round mediumship made world-famous through the Canadian home circle of surgeon-psychic researcher Dr. T. Glen Hamilton of Winnipeg…”

The Hamiltons and their mediums were not the only Winnipeggers to make Psychic News. On February 20, 1954, a story appeared on “the mysterious organ music” at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral Winnipeg.

From: Psychic News, February 20, 1954, page 8

Interested to find out more?

Check out the University of Manitoba Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections’ many collections related to psychical research and spiritualism.

Comprising over 4,000 items, the Psychic News Digital Archive offers a rich source for historical study of Spiritualism and psychical research. The newspaper’s pages celebrate the history of the Spiritualist movement within the UK and internationally; while also documenting the controversy and disappointment when séance-room fraud was uncovered.

Though in-person events celebrating Manitoba 150 are postponed, exploring Manitoba’s history online through this new collection is the perfect way for Manitobans living in the province and around the world to virtually travel — safely, from the comfort of home.

Why not visit Gimli and learn more about its Icelandic population? Spend the afternoon on the sand and water in Grand Beach. Take in the northern lights among the polar bears and beluga whales in Churchill. Take a stroll along the streets of Romantic Winnipeg. Or, journey to the hundreds of other communities that are documented in the Manitoba Local Histories Collection and learn about the histories of the communities, people, farms, churches, schools, businesses and other institutions that have shaped the province’s rich and diverse history for over 150 years.

The University of Manitoba Libraries would like to thank the following partners and contributors for their support throughout this project:

• Manitoba Library Consortium 
• Brandon University 
• Manitoba Historical Society
• Manitoba Legislative Library
• Providence University College 
• Université de Saint-Boniface 
• University of Winnipeg
• Winnipeg Public Library

We would further like to thank the Legislative Library and the Manitoba Genealogical Society, as well as numerous donors across the province, who provided many of the books that were digitized. 

To learn more about the collection and other library resources that document our province’s history, visit the Libraries’ Manitoba Local Histories guide.

Please note that historical materials contain language and terminology that reflect the culture and context of their creators. Materials may include descriptions and phrases that would now be deemed insensitive, outdated, inaccurate or offensive. The views expressed in historical documents presented here do not reflect the views of the University of Manitoba nor its partners in this project.