Adding Library Content into your WebCT Courses

There are several ways to provide your students in your WebCT course with access to library materials.

• Complying with Copyright   Please read this section first to learn how to comply with copyright regulations when either linking to a resource using a persistent URL or when naming the link for articles uploaded directly into WebCT.

• Linking to a Resource Using a Persistent URL   If you find an electronic resource such as an article in one of the library's full-text databases, you may be able to link to it directly from WebCT. This link will access the resource through a proxy server that requires each student to log in with his or her SU ID number and last name. Therefore, if you are teaching a course that includes students who are not matriculated at SU (e.g. WISE consortium classes), you should not use this method.

• Uploading Articles Directly into WebCT Courses   An excellent option for ensuring that students without an SU ID number have access to library resources for your WebCT course is to save the resource onto your computer's hard drive, then upload the file directly into WebCT.

• Using the Course Reserves Service   If you find an article or book chapter within the library that you want to make it accessible online to your students (even if it is only available in hardcopy), the library's Course Reserves Service can help you.

• Using the Digital Imaging Service Center (DISC) to Scan Hardcopies   If you need a document or image digitized and you have a special need, such as digitizing a very large object, digitizing a document in high resolution, or digitizing a document that combines much text and graphics, DISC may be able to help you.

Please keep copyright considerations in mind when linking to library materials.

• Items integrated into your WebCT course are subject to U.S. copyright law (Title 17, US Code). For specific information regarding licensing restrictions, consult the terms and conditions provided by the publisher or vendor.
• It is important to include complete citation information with your links. The text of you link must include author, title, publication, volume and issue number (if applicable), copyright year and page numbers.

You may want to copy the citation information for an article into a text editor window so that it is ready for you to use when you insert the link in your WebCT course. The image below provides an example of how you might do so:

A persistent URL is a web address that will consistently point to a specific information resource such as an article in a full-text library database. The library web site provides instructions to help you create links in your WebCT course using persistent URLs. Such links will access the resource through a proxy server that requires each student to log in with his or her SU ID number and last name if working from a computer that is not connected to the campus network.

• Be certain to follow the instructions on Complying with Copyright when creating links to library resources using PURLs.

Creating a link to a library resource within WebCT using a PURL is a two-step process:

1. Acquire the PURL for that resource
2. Insert the PURL to that article within your WebCT course

Acquiring the PURL

For detailed instructions on how to acquire the persistent URL for an individual resource, visit the "Creating Persistent Links (PURLs) to Library Resources" page on the library's web site. To get there,

1. From the library's home page, click on the "Instruction" link (available under the "Services" heading)
2. On the "Instruction Program" page, under the heading "Services for Faculty/Course Instructors," click on "Courseware & Library Resources."
3. On the "Courseware and Library Resources" page, under the heading "Importing and Linking," click on "Creating Persistent URLs (PURLs) to Library Resources."
4. The resulting page provides instructions for getting the persistent URLs from several different library databases.

You can also reach the "Creating Persistent Links (PURLs) to Library Resources" page by clicking on the image below.

• Note: For your convenience, you may want to copy and paste the two parts of the PURL into a text editor window, then copy and paste the entire PURL into WebCT. For instance:

	Copy the SU Library EZproxy prefix into the text editor.
	Copy the URL for the article. Instructions for getting the article URL are available from the page discussed above, "Creating Persistent Links (PURLs) to Library Resources." Copy the entire PURL and paste it into WebCT, as described in the follow section.

Inserting the PURL into WebCT

To add the link to the article, you will need to use WebCT's "Add Page or Tool" feature to insert the URL into the course.

	Select the "Add page or tool" button.
	Select "URL"
	In item 1, you will need to insert the citation for the resource. This citation will become the text of the link. You may have the citation stored in a text editor, as discussed above.
	In item 2, you will need to insert the PURL for the resource. You may have stored it in a text editor window, as discussed above. As with any tool you add in WebCT, you will have to tell WebCT where in your course you want that link to be (item 3 in the image).

Once you have added the link, your page may look like the example below.

Sometimes the most convenient option for giving your students access to electronic library resources might be for you to download and save an article from an electronic journal or database, and then upload it into WebCT.

• If, for instance, the article opens as an Adobe PDF, you can use the save command within Adobe to put a local copy on your computer hard drive.


• If you access the article as an HTML file and you are using the Windows operating system, you can right-click on the article, select "save as," and then save the article on your hard drive.

Once you have the article saved, you can go into your WebCT course and add it. This process is the same as uploading other reading assignments into your WebCT course. You must:

1. Upload the file into the course. You can either:


• Upload the file using the Manage Files tool
• Drag and drop it into the course using WebDAV


2. Create a link to that file, either on an Organizer Page or in a Content Module

• Be certain to follow the instructions on Complying with Copyright when creating links to library resources that you have uploaded into your course.

The library's Course Reserves Service can place readings on electronic reserve for your courses. If you find a library resource that is only available in a print format, the library can digitize it for you and place it on reserve. Information about how to use the electronic reserve service is available at the library's course reserves web site:

If you have a specialized digitization need, the Digital Imaging Services Center (DISC) may be able to help you. You can find more information on their web site.

• Adding Library Content into your WebCT Courses
• Helping Students Find Relevant Library Resources
• For More Information or Help

Tutorial produced for Syracuse University School of Information Studies by Dan O'Brien Muzyka.
Copyright © 2004 Syracuse University School of Information Studies. All rights reserved.