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Drake University - visit www.drake.edu Cowles Library

Teaching Support

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Integrate Library Resources into Blackboard

This page will help you integrate library resources into your Blackboard course pages. If you have questions about any of this functionality, email reference@drake.edu. You can find instructions and how-to guides for configuring and using Blackboard in the Drake ITS Knowledge Base.

Adding Links in Blackboard Ultra

  1. Log in to Blackboard and select your course.
  2. Select Content from the course navigation bar, then hover over Build Content.
  3. Select Web Link to add a single link or Blank Page if you’d like to add several links from the Library.
    1. If you chose Web Link, provide a Name and URL.
    2. If you chose Blank Page, provide a Name for the page and paste the URLs–along with any descriptive text–into the Content field.
  4. Click Submit. Your web link or page will appear at the bottom of your course menu.

Links to Library Web Pages

You can copy and paste the URL from your browser’s address bar to get a stable URL for any page on the library website. Some library pages that may be useful to your students:

Links to Research Guides (subject or course specific), the library’s database lists, specific databases, electronic journals, online reserves, and more are available. Librarians are always available to assist you in assembling links. Contact your subject expert or use our Ask a Librarian service for assistance.

Links to SuperSearch Results

You can provide links to a list of search results or to individual items in SuperSearch. If you have questions or need help, contact reference@drake.edu.

  • To link to a set of search results, simply conduct your search and copy/paste the URL from your browser’s address bar.
  • To link to an individual search result, conduct your search and click on the result you want, then click the Permalink icon in the Actions section. A URL will appear with a “Copy This Permalink” button you can use to copy/paste the link.
Create Your Own SuperSearch Results Link

While we recommend using one of the options above, you can also create your own links to SuperSearch results. Use the form below to select the type of search you want to perform (Title, Keyword, Author, etc.), and submit your search terms. The form will generate a URL you can use to link to those search results.


 

Link to an Online Journal

Link to the Cowles Library Find Journals page for your preferred journal. Here are a few reasons why we recommend this option:

  • Publishers frequently change their URLs without advanced notice. By linking to the Find Journals page, your students will always be able to find the journal you are assigning regardless of publisher URL changes.
  • The date range for full text availability changes and it also varies from database to database. Using the Find Journals search box, students will be able to select the database that has full text for the desired date.
  • A database server may be down or the quality of full text may be inadequate. Students may be able to go to another database for full text.

How to find a specific journal:

  1. Go to the the Cowles Library Find Journals page.
  2. Perform a search for your preferred journal.
  3. Depending on the library’s holdings and the scholarly level of the journal, you may be directed to results in BrowZine or in SuperSearch.
    1. If you are directed to BrowZine, copy the URL from the browser’s address bar.
    2. If you are directed to SuperSearch, click on the desired result and select the Permalink icon from the Actions section. Click the Copy this Permalink button to copy the URL to your clipboard.
  4. Paste the resulting URL into your course page.

Link to an Article in a Database or Online Journal

You can create links to any of the articles available through Library databases and online journals. Unfortunately, however, the process of creating a link varies from database to database.

In order to create a link to an article, you need to use a persistent link, sometimes called “permalinks” or “stable URLs.” In some cases, the URL in your browser’s address bar might work as a persistent URL. However, we strongly recommend finding or creating a persistent link. See our page on persistent links for techniques on how to find (or create your own) persistent links.

Link to Drake's Digital Collections

Drake's institutional repository, Drake Digital Collections, and Drake University Political Papers are potentially valuable resources for use in your classroom.

  • eScholarShare, Drake’s institutional repository, contains links to dissertations, theses, articles, books, and other content by Drake authors.
  • Drake Digital Collections contain historic documents, photographs, and other artifacts that have been digitally scanned to make them available online.
  • The Drake University Political Papers Collection consists of the congressional papers of senators and members of the House of Representatives from Iowa, as well as records related to the Iowa Caucus and Iowa politics in general.

URLs in these resources do not need a permalink or proxy prefix; simply locate the desired resource or collection, and copy/paste the URL into your course page.

Link to E-Reserves

You can create links to E-Reserves at the Course Page level, at the Documents Page level, or to an individual document. For each of these links, your students will be prompted for the course password (established when you created your E-Reserves course page), so you should provide the password in Blackboard along with the link. More information about setting up E-Reserves.

Go to the Drake E-Reserves lookup and find your course page.

Once you reach your Course Page in E-Reserves, you can use the browser’s URL as a persistent URL for your course page. (see screenshot below). The URL contains a course ID assigned internally by the E-Reserve system, which is not to be confused with the Course Number in MyDUSIS. The format of the URL looks something like: http://library.drake.edu/er.php?course_id={E-Reserve course id}

To link directly to a single E-Reserves document, click on the document and copy the URL from your browser. Again, this URL can be used as a persistent URL for the document and associates its own id. The format of this URL is: http://library.drake.edu/loader.php?type=e&id=xxxxx

Link to Videos and Other Media

Cowles Library offers a wide range of video, audio and image resources that may be of considerable value in instruction. In many cases these videos and other resources can be directly incorporated into your course pages. Librarians will work with you to select and link the best media resources for your class, whether from the open web or from our licensed resources. You can find more information on our Videos and Audio page.

The library subscribes to several streaming video services, and you can find information about linking to individual videos in our Streaming Video at Drake guide.

In addition to database media resources, Cowles librarians are adding an ever-growing body of original, Drake-specific videos concerning information literacy, the use of specific resources, and other guides and instructional tutorials to the Cowles Library YouTube channel. If you don’t see the particular topic or resource you’d like, please contact us — we’ll be happy to prepare a guide that meets your needs.

Adding a Librarian as a Co-Instructor

Cowles Library faculty librarians can serve as co-instructors within Blackboard courses, and can provide valuable virtual help.

Adding a faculty librarian as a co-instructor requires setting up the librarian as a course user. Please submit a request to Drake ITS for Blackboard User Addition or Removal and select “Request Service” to provide the course information and librarian’s name or User ID that you would like to have added to your course. You will want to use the “User Addition” option and the BB Course Role called “Librarian”. Contact carrie.dunham-lagree@drake.edu if you would like a recommendation of a specific librarian appropriate for your course.