Students

Most course reserves are digital resources that can be accessed directly from the Library Course Reserves module in your Canvas course.

Some courses have physical items like books that are on reserve at one of our libraries. The location of these items is listed in your Canvas course and you can access them at the library services desk. 

Need help? Ask Us

Put items on reserve

Course reserves is a library service that works with instructors to make course readings and other assigned materials accessible directly in Canvas, our campus learning management system. Your students access course reserves items as links or PDFs directly in your Canvas course alongside your syllabus and other course information. 

Types of course reserve materials

You can place the following types of materials on reserve for your students.

  • Any electronic item from the University of Saskatchewan Library collection.
  • Items you own that can be electronically copied (subject to fair dealing guidelines).
  • Scanned chapters of print books and print journal articles (subject to fair dealing guidelines).
  • Physical items from the library collection (where no e-version is available, or scanned sections exceed fairdealing guidelines).
  • Open Access items

Item types on the request form

  • Library article: any article from a library-owned or licensed journal
  • Library eBook: any library-licensed electronic book
  • Library print book: any library-owned print book
  • Library print book chapter: chapter from a library-owned print book (subject to fair dealing guidelines)
  • Other library materials: DVDs, CDs, streaming films from a library-licensed database, etc.
  • Personal item: any non-library owned item; entire item or portion (subject to fair dealing guidelines)

Why choose electronic course reserves?

  • Your students benefit by having access to all of the materials they need to be successful in your class from anywhere at any time. This helps all students, but particularly benefits those who are studying remotely or have limited ability to come to the library due to work, childcare needs, or illness. 
  • You benefit by having the library add persistent links (links that point directly to an ebook or article and do not change or break) directly in your Canvas course. The library will also digitize materials and check copyright, meaning all materials posted for your class will be copyright compliant.
  • Once your course reserves have been set up by the library, you can save time and effort in future terms by copying your course reserves module into other Canvas courses. 

How the library can help

We are happy to digitize selections of print materials for your course reserves. If the amount that needs to be scanned exceeds fair dealing guidelines, we will work with the USask copyright office to obtain permission to scan and post what is required. In some cases, we may be able to work with your liaison librarian to purchase an electronic version.

If the material cannot be made available electronically we will place the item on a short-term loan shelf and include the item information in your Canvas course.

Interested in finding alternate resources for print materials that meet your instructional needs and are electronically accessible? Reach out to your liaison librarian for assistance.

Setting up course reserves

Request materials for your course

All USask instructors can complete the online form to place items on reserve for your course. 

Once you have submitted the form you will see a notification indicating that your request was successful. All requests are processed in the order they are received and we strongly recommend submitting your reserve requests as early as possible. 

Adding course reserves in Canvas

In 1-2 business days, we will email you to request access to your course in Canvas. The email will include instructions on how to temporarily add one of our staff members to your Canvas course as a designer. Once you have granted us access, we will add links and/or files for your requested materials. The requested items are placed in a course module titled Library Course Reserves.

Once our staff member has added all your requested reserve items to your course, you will be notified by email that the work is complete and you may remove the designer from your course in Canvas.

When your Library Course Reserves modules is ready, checkout options for editing the module and its content.

Loan periods and fines

Note: Applicable only to physical materials placed on the short-term loans shelf. Electronic materials do not accrue late fines.

Loan Period Time Due Fines
4 hours 4 hours from time of check-out $2/hour/item
1 day 24 hours from time of check-out $2/hour/item

Get help

  • If you have a book that is only available in print that you want to place on reserve for your class, your liaison librarian can help you to find appropriate alternate resources. Contact your liaison librarian directly for assistance.   
  • Wondering what you can do with your course reserves module? Checkout our Library and Canvas guide for instructions on how to copy and edit your new module.
  • For all other inquiries, please reach out to our course reserve specialists at course.reserves@library.usask.ca

FAQs

We aim to have your course reserve request completed within 3 to 5 business days. This timeline may be extended depending on the amount of processing required (digitization, copyright clearance, number of requests, etc.).

We process all course reserves requests in order of submission.

Yes! You can embed library resources in your Canvas courses yourself. However, in addition to saving you time, our course reserves staff will make sure that your readings are copyright-compliant and will use persistent links to resources when you place your request with us. 

For more information on what you can do with library resources in Canvas, including course reserves, see our Library and Canvas guide.

On our request form, we do ask about the learning management system (LMS). If your class is not in Canvas, let us know in the Note field which LMS you are using. We will work with you to see if it is possible to embed library resources in your college/department's course management system. 

Links to ebook chapter are notoriously unstable, so we try to avoid them. We recommend linking to the entire ebook, with instructions that the reading is only for a specfic chapter. We can do this for you, just let us know in the Note field when you make your request via our form.

Yes, modules can be copied and moved from one course to another. We have included instructions on how to do this on our Library and Canvas guide.

Keep in mind that if special permission had to be obtained for a reading, you should contact the copyright coordinator or check the University Library's copyright website before reusing a module.

It is good practice to double-check links to ensure the library still has access to your required reading.

At the end of your course, your library course reserves module will remain intact but keep in mind:
  • Links to electronic resources are persistent but should be checked periodically to ensure the library still has access to the resource.
  • Print items that were placed on the short-term loan shelf will be placed back in regular circulation, but links to the library catalogue records will remain. 
  • PDF scans of print items will remain accessible.
  • Links to digitized videos may no longer work due to copyright restrictions. Check with the library’s copyright coordinator about the status of your digitized video.