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Course Readings & Media (Reserves)

The Library's Course Readings & Media team facilitates student access to materials and resources assigned by Faculty.

Services Available to Faculty

  • Creating hyperlinks to e-journals, e-books, and multimedia resources from the MSVU Library's scholarly databases.
  • Digitizing and optimizing physical (print) course material for accessibility and functionality.
  • Adding scanned articles/documents to Moodle course sites. 
  • Curating books and physical materials for on-campus classes.
  • Checking fair dealing and copyright compliance.
  • Seeking access to additional materials not licensed by the Library.

To request service, please complete the Course Readings & Media (Reserves) Request Form:

Contact reserves@msvu.ca for additional support.

Continue reading to see a full description of Course Readings & Media Services and Policies.

Moodle Course Sites

The Teaching & Learning Centre and Online Learning (TLCOL) establish and develop all Moodle course sites. For more information, visit TLCOL’s Intranet Site or email online@msvu.ca.

To transfer course content from previous courses (including materials previously posted by the Library), submit the Course Content Transfer Request.

Moodle Permission

Library staff require permission from Faculty to access each course site. To grant the Library permission to access your course site and post materials, please complete our Request Form. For assistance, e-mail reserves@msvu.ca.

Citation Requirement

To ensure copyright compliance, academic integrity, and accurate request tracking, the Library requires full citations in your preferred format (APA, MLA, etc.) for each Course Readings & Media (Reserves) request. The Library cannot post materials to Moodle without a list of citations. 

Please include a list of citations (including authors, work/article titles, volume/issue/page numbers, etc.) when completing our Request Form, or e-mail your list to reserves@msvu.ca as an attachment. 

Please include dates (i.e., the date each reading will be covered in class) if you would like the Library to organize them accordingly on your Moodle site. 

Available Formats

Permalinks

The Library's Course Readings & Media (Reserves) team searches the MSVU's scholarly databases to obtain permalinks (permanent hyperlinks / persistent URLs) to licensed e-journals, e-books, videos, etc. These links are then posted to Moodle course sites. Properly formatted hyperlinks allow students to access resources from home / remotely.   

Embedded Files

The Library's Course Readings & Media (Reserves) team can digitize physical (print) materials such as books, images, or older journal articles (provided they fit our Fair Dealing Policy) and embed these files into Moodle sites. Faculty may also submit PDF scans, or even photographs, to reserves@msvu.ca.

Unavailable Materials

Document Delivery

If materials are not available through MSVU Library databases or Novanet, faculty are asked to use our Document Delivery service.

Purchase Requests

To request that materials be considered for the MSVU Library’s collection, contact a MSVU librarian or complete the Library Materials Recommendations Form.

Processing Time

Requests are processed in the order that they are received. The Course Readings & Media (Reserves) team makes every effort to post the majority of course materials by the beginning of term.

Due to the high volume of requests we receive in September and January, we may post materials chronologically, according to the date each reading is used in class. 

We encourage Faculty submitting requests at peak times (September and January) to provide a full course syllabus or list of dates. This allows us to prioritize your highest-priority readings and materials. 

Mount Library Course Readings & Media (Reserves) Policies

The principal mission of the Mount Library is to support the curricular and research needs of the students and faculty of Mount Saint Vincent University. The Library supports members of the Mount community who require access to required and supplemental readings and other materials for courses, while respecting the copyright of the publishers of such materials as well as keeping with the Fair Dealing provisions in the Canadian Copyright Act. 

Guidelines on Course Readings & Media (Reserves) service via Moodle

  1. Course Readings & Media (Reserves) service provides online access to readings where:     
    • The Library holds a licence to the material and can create a persistent URL to the reading;
    • The Library holds a licence to the material and the licence allows the library to make a copy for Reserves purposes;
    • The material is available on the open Web, and the Library can provide a link to it;
    • Articles or book chapters are owned by you or the Library and fit the criteria of Fair Dealing or other legal exceptions in the Copyright Act (or, if outside these criteria, you have the copyright holder's permission to post it to your online course site); and,
    • Any further permission required for posting to the Moodle system will be sought by Library staff on behalf of Faculty. 
  2. If you wish to use student's work or other unpublished works, it is good practice to use the Consent Form for Unpublished Works [pdf].
  3. Faculty may submit requests by completing our Request Form and/or emailing reserves@msvu.ca