LibAnswers

Articles, ebooks, streaming media items, and book chapters are no longer put on reserve at the library, rather faculty are expected to link to them in Canvas, which allows those materials to be copied each semester for each new section being taught.

The best way to put articles, ebooks, streaming media, or book chapters in Canvas is to link to readings found through the library catalog, library databases, or content that is open access. If there is no access through the library or via open access, use Interlibrary Loan. Be cautious about sharing material found on the open web, as sharing it with your class may violate copyright law. If you are concerned about whether content may be in violation of current interpretations of copyright law, please content Laurie Preston at lpreston@rmc.edu.

The advantages of using links to library materials are that:

• Usage data for library materials shows every time a student accesses the item, which shows us that resources are being used for a class (as opposed to downloaded once to be uploaded into Canvas later). This helps the library make more accurate decisions about maintaining materials or subscriptions.
• Most print/language-based materials are already OCRed (OCR=optical character recognition), meaning they can be read by someone using screen reader technology without any additional work on your part.
• If done properly, links will allow users to access materials from either on- or off-campus.
• Links will limit access to materials to RMC users only, providing support for fair use copyright/licensing protections.
• Most links will update automatically if something changes with the database, though it's always a good idea to check links every semester!

To link to an RMC library database:

1. Locate the material you want to use in a database or through the library catalog (see https://library.rmc.edu to search the catalog, explore the Databases tab to find and search a specific database, or link directly to the A-Z List of Databases and Resources).
2. Locate the persistent link for the resource, rather than using the url in the address bar.

Persistent Links show up in various places, depending on the database, for instance, in ProQuest the persistent link shows up on the abstract/details of the record:

The persistent link is also known as a document URL, persistent URL, PURL, durable link/URL, or stable link/URL. Locate persistent links in other databases.

3. To ensure that links are available for use off-campus, add the following prefix to the link: https://rmc.idm.oclc.org/login?url= for example: https://rmc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A240097363/LitRC?u=vic_randolph&sid=LitRC&xid=28b8792d

The prefix will route any off-campus user to login with their Randolph-Macon College username and password.

4. Remember to supply citation information - articles and chapters sometimes do not include those details on the resource itself, and students will want to know that information to be able to cite the source correctly in their reflection, research paper, etc. 

Working with an existing file or interlibrary loaned material

Before uploading scanned, printed, or interlibrary loaned materials to Canvas, it is important to make sure the are accessible to anyone using screen reader technology. If you can highlight individual words in your file and copy and paste them into a text or Word document, for example, the language is recognizable and accessible. If the whole mass of text highlights as a single large block and copy/pastes as a garbled, illegible mess, the text has not been OCRed.

To OCR a document

• Use the Scan & OCR tool in Adobe Acrobat (not Reader) to recognize the text. Adobe Acrobat is not free, but if you have a license already, it works well.
• Upload or drag and drop the document into DocDrop, a free site supported by developers of the Hypothes.is annotation tool. 

To upload an OCRed file 

Files can be uploaded to Canvas using a few different methods:

• The file can be uploaded and stored within Canvas,
• The file can be uploaded to OneDrive or GoogleDrive and then linked in Canvas, or
• You can link to an external (non-Canvas) link.

The instructions for how to do each of these options are available on the Canvas Training & Support page under the section on Adding Materials to a Module.