Answered By: Dawn McKinnon
Last Updated: Jul 05, 2021     Views: 472

If you are teaching a course, you can easily link to the books, chapters, and articles that make up your course readings.


To link to a book

You can create links to textbooks and other required or recommended readings.

  1. Search for the book in WorldCat Discovery.
  2. On the book's detail page, click on the Link icon to get the URL for this record.
  3. Add this link to your reading list or to myCourses.

From the book's record in WorldCat Discovery, students can:

  • See the availability of the print book (location, call number, whether it is available for borrowing, etc.)
  • Get the link to the online version of the book

 

Note: Some ebooks are like print books in that they can only be accessed by a limited number of people at a time.

Can't find the book? If you can't find the book, contact amanda.whealtey@mcgill.ca or dawn.mckinnon@mcgill.ca.

Putting your textbook and other reading on course reserves: You can request to have the Library place print copies of your textbook and other books in your reading list on 3-hour course reserve.

Use the Course Reserves form to submit your list of readings.

Please submit your list as soon as possible so that we can have the books on reserve when classes start.


To link to a chapter of a book

Getting permission to upload a chapter: If you are assigning a chapter from a book, you can upload a PDF of that chapter as long as it falls within the limits allowed by copyright, i.e. 1 entire chapter of a book (assuming that chapter does not total more than 20% of the book). You don't need to get any extra permission to do this, though we do ask you to report this chapter use to us.

If you need to use more than 1 chapter of a book (or a chapter that is more than 20% of the book), you can fill in this form and the Library will obtain the permissions and make any necessary payments for you.

Scanning the chapter: To scan a chapter into a PDF, you can use one of the book scanners in the Library or you can request that we scan the chapter for you.

Once you have the PDF of the chapter, you can upload the file to myCourses.


To link to an article from a journal, magazine, or newspaper

  1. Locate the article using one or more of the databases on the Articles and News research guide.
    If you have the citation to the article and/or know the journal/publication is appears in, you can use WorldCat Discovery to search for the journal/publication, then locate the article in the appropriate volume/issue.
  2. Find the persistent URL to that article.
    Unfortunately, publishers use different ways of providing a persistent link that you can use to get back to an article, so you'll need try a few things:
  • Look for a link that says "permalink", "link", "copy link", "share" or something similar.
  • Look for a tab that says "details" or "abstract/details", then find the "document URL".
  • If you can't find any of the above options, try using the URL that appears in your browser bar when viewing the article.

Once you have the link you can add it to your reading list or to myCourses.

If you have difficulty finding the persistent URL link to an article, contact amanda.whealtey@mcgill.ca or dawn.mckinnon@mcgill.ca.

Off-campus access for articles

Most academic articles are restricted to McGill users. Anyone who is on campus and using the McGill network (i.e. using a workstation or connected to McGill's wifi network) can access these articles without difficulty. Students who are off campus, however, may encounter problems accessing articles.

There are two ways to make it easy for students to access articles when they are off campus:

Method 1: Add proxy server prefix to the article link

When students click on a 'proxied' link they will be asked to login with their McGill username and password and then be taken to the article.

The prefix to add is:

https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=

For example, if the permanent link to the article is:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2693/full

you would add the proxy URL as a prefix to it like so

https://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.2693/full


Method 2: VPN

Students can download and log into McGill's VPN software to connect to the McGill network whenever they are off campus. 


Creating links in myCourses

For instructions on how to create links in myCourses, see:


Testing your links

Make sure you test your links! For best results, open them in another browser or close and restart your browser before trying the links.

Related Topics

    Contact Us

    Dawn McKinnon

    • Liaison Librarian for Management & Business

    dawn.mckinnon@mcgill.ca

    Emily Jaeger-McEnroe

    • Liaison Librarian for Management & Business and Entrepreneurship

    emily.jaeger-mcenroe@mcgill.ca

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