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Making Readings Available to Students

Students are often assigned readings of specific articles and books as part of preparation for class discussions or assignments.Traditionally these books or articles were placed on reserve in a physical space within the library. New technologies and processes offer other options for making required readings available. Each option has specific benefits along with specific cautions.This page describes several of the options for making assigned readings available to students and outlines the benefits and cautions associated with each.

The best method for making required readings available for a specific course depends on the format of the material being assigned and the goals of the instructor.The ordering of the options in this document is not intended to be hierarchical.

Table of contents:

See also:  How do I create a stable link to an online journal article or electronic book?

Link from the SFU Library Catalogue Reserves Lists to Online Articles

Process:

  • Faculty place online articles or websites on reserve linked from the Library website by completing an online form /my-library/services-for-you/placing-reserves#ej.
  • Ideally the items are submitted in the order in which the students should read them.
  • Students locate the Reserves list for the course in the SFU Library catalogue.
  • Students click on the links to reading lists or individual articles, authenticate as SFU students by entering SFU Computing ID and password. The authentication remains active until the browser’s window is closed.

Benefits:

  • The Reserves lists in the SFU Library catalogue are organized and accessible by searching for a specific course or a specific professor.
  • Readings are accessible both on- and off-campus.
  • Web addresses for the articles are verified by library staff and corrected if addresses change, so links to the articles are not broken.
  • Copyright concerns have already been addressed by library staff, and alternatives have been suggested if copyright agreements do not allow linking.
  • Professors can link to the Reserves reading list from WebCT or their personal websites (e.g., by linking to http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/search/r?SEARCH=lib+001).
  • All required readings for the course are in a single list, that is, online articles along with any paper format books and chapters not available in online format
  • Students have the option of reading the articles online or printing them.

Cautions:

  • The process for requesting online reserves adds an extra step which faculty can avoid by placing the list on their WebCT course or their personal websites and adding links to the citations.
  • Readings are listed in the Reserves list in the order processed by Reserves staff, which does not necessarily conform to week, module, or theme, options available within Learning Modules in WebCT.
  • Only materials already available in online format can be linked as online reserves.

Link from WebCT/ Personal Websites to the SFU Library Catalogue Reserves Lists with Links to Online Articles

Process:

  • Faculty link from the WebCT course or from their personal website to the Reserves reading list in the Library catalogue (e.g., to http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/search/r?SEARCH=lib+001, as in 4 above).
  • Students click on the links to reading lists or individual articles, authenticate as SFU students by entering SFU Computing ID and password. The authentication remains active until the browser’s window is closed.

Benefits:

  • If the link from WebCT is to the Reserve list in the SFU Library catalogue, web addresses for the articles are verified by library staff and corrected if addresses change, and the linking is in accord with the Library's licensing of access to the online journal.
  • Copyright concerns have already been addressed by library staff, and alternatives have been suggested if copyright agreements do not allow linking.
  • Students locate the readings in the same virtual place as the other material for their course.
  • Readings are accessible both on- and off-campus.
  • Students have the option of reading the articles online or printing them.

Cautions:

  • The process for requesting online reserves adds an extra step which faculty can avoid by placing the list on their WebCT course or their personal websites and adding links to the citations.
  • Readings are listed in the Reserves list in the order processed by Reserves staff, which does not necessarily conform to week, module, or theme, options available within Learning Modules in WebCT.

Link from WebCT/ Personal Websites Directly to Online Articles

Process:

Benefits:

  • Faculty are able to place the citation to the article wherever they wish within the organization of their course materials.
  • Students locate the readings in the same virtual place as the other material for their course.
  • Readings are accessible both on- and off-campus.
  • Students have the option of reading the articles online or printing them.

Cautions:

  • The proxy prefix ( http://proxy.lib.sfu.ca/login?url= ) has to be placed in front of the URL for eachlink to an article in a journal to which the library has a paid subscription through an online publisher or vendor.
  • The URL linked must be the “persistent URL” rather than the URL in the address bar.
  • If online access is freely available without a library subscription through an online publisher or vendor, the proxy prefix should not be included.
  • Faculty need to check the links regularly to ensure that they continue to work.
  • Faculty need to be familiar with the Library's licensing for the journal in which that reading appears in order not to risk violation of copyright.
  • Not all articles are available in online format.

Link from WebCT/ Personal Websites to Online Articles Linked in RefShare Database

Process:

  • Faculty post reading lists in folders within RefShare (a subset of RefWorks), and link to those folders from WebCT
  • Individual RefShare folders could be linked from appropriate places within WebCT.
  • Students click on the links to reading lists or individual articles, authenticate as SFU students by entering SFU Computing ID and password. The authentication remains active until the browser’s window is closed.

Benefits:

  • Faculty are able to place the citation to the article wherever they wish within the organization of their course materials.
  • Students locate the readings in the same virtual place as the other material for their course.
  • Biblographies can easily be produced from citations within RefShare.
  • Readingsare accessible both on- and off-campus.
  • Students have the option of reading the articles online or printing them.
  • All required readings for the course are in a single list, that is, online articles along with any paper format books and chapters not available in online format.
  • See also the web page What is RefShare and how do I use it?

Cautions:

  • Faculty need to be somewhat familiar with RefShare software.
  • Faculty need to check each semester to ensure that the Where can I get this link? in the citation leads to a current source.
  • Not all articles are available in online format.

Custom Courseware Readers

Process:

  • Faculty present clean copies of the articles, with work orders, to the Custom Courseware clerk in SFU Document Solutions for copying. (http://www.sfu.ca/docsol/courseware/inquires.html)
  • Students purchase the reader through the SFU Bookstore or receive it as part of a Distance Education course package.
  • Copyright clearance for materials in Distance Education Custom Courseware is obtained by staff in the Centre for Online and Distance Education.

Benefits:

  • All the readings for a course in one single perfectbound book.
  • All materials in accordance with copyright.

Cautions:

  • Extra expense for students (who know that many of the articles in the course readers are available online and question why they should pay for the course reader when they would be able to read much of the material online at no cost).
  • Course reader content must be planned well in advance.
  • Readings in some subject areas can quickly become out-of-date.
  • Static content.

Paper Copies of Readings Available in Library Reserves Physical Space

Process:

  • Faculty place articles or books on-reserve in the Library Reserves areas by completing an online form. See Reserve Services for Faculty.
  • Students locate the Reserves list for the course in the SFU Library catalogue.Information about required readings may have been distributed in class, on WebCT or on the faculty’s personal website.
  • Students retrieve the articles or books from the Reserves area in the Library, often photocopying the items to read elsewhere.

Benefits:

  • Reserves lists in the SFU Library catalogue are organized by course and by professor, so there is an online record of the readings.
  • No copyright concerns.

Cautions:

  • Loan periods are short.
  • Students have to come to the Library to retrieve the readings.

Reading Lists in Paper Format

Process:

  • Faculty make reading lists for distribution in paper format (or for distribution online, e.g. in emails, without links).
  • Students look up items from the reading list in the library catalogue, and often print out the articles, or make photocopies.

Benefits:

  • Very time efficient for faculty.
  • Students have the option to read articles online rather than print them if online format.
  • Students have the option to read articles rather than photocopy them if in paper journals.
  • Students develop some facility in reading citations.

Cautions:

  • Requires faculty to prepare exact and complete citations.
  • Students often have difficulty in interpreting citations.

Other

Media Resource Centre materials may be placed on course reserve at the Belzberg or Surrey Libraries or in the Media Resource Centre at Bennett Library.

Some of the newer online collections of images and soundfiles provide options for assembling electronic reserves.Faculty should consult with the Media Librarian or with the liaison librarian for their subject to explore this possibility.

Copyright at SFU

The Copyright Program section of the SFU Archives web page provides links to the Copying Right Brochure plus other information about SFU’s copyright agreements and policies.

Owned by: Scott Mackenzie
Revised by: Site Administrator
Last Modified: 2011-06-20