From CUNY Academic Commons

Integrating library resources and services into a Blackboard course site enhances student learning by connecting students with high quality research material and librarians who will help them. Often students are unfamiliar with the resources the library has to offer and rely too heavily on the open web for their information. Connecting students with better resources will foster increased information literacy and may result in higher quality papers. The following guide provides suggested library resources and services, as well as instructions for including them in a course site.

• Link to the Libraries home page – http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/

• Link to the Ask-a-Librarian options – This link shows the options for contacting a librarian with research questions. (24/7 chat, email, telephone numbers) http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/ask_a_librarian.htm

• Link to Reserves – You can link to the items that you have put on Reserves by following these steps:

1. Search for your course in ERes http://hunter.docutek.com/eres/courseindex.aspx?error=&page=search
2. Click on the Course Info tab
3. Copy the Persistent URL
4. Paste the Persistent URL directly into your course site
5. Be sure to include the username/password if your ERes material is password-protected

• Link to CUNY+ or a specific record in CUNY+ – CUNY+ is the CUNY-wide library catalog. You can link directly to CUNY+ using http://apps.appl.cuny.edu:83/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b&local_base=hunter, or you can link to a specific item by following these steps:

1. Go to CUNY+
2. Search for the item
3. Find the holdings record
4. Click on Permanent Link
5. Copy the URL from the address bar
6. Paste the URL directly into your course site

• Link to a full-text article – You can link to an article in one of the Libraries’ subscription databases (http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/databases). In order to do this you will need a persistent URL. Most full-text providers including Academic Search Premier, Education Full Text, JSTOR and PsycInfo include a persistent URL within the first page of their records. The persistent URL is crucial to insuring that the link remains stable, providing dependable access to your students. It is usually clearly marked and located somewhere in the body of the first page, not in the address window.  Alternatively, you may want to provide a link to the database and give your students a specific citation, allowing them to search for the article themselves. This will avoid the problem of shifting URL’s. Linking directly to a database provides the opportunity for students to explore electronic resources and become comfortable with search interfaces.