Western Libraries Online Services

The Libraries can help with your course reserves, we can provide support in assignment design, and offer online tutorials and lessons related to research, writing, and citations, like the Library Information Tutorial, tutorials related to the integrated literacies (research, reading, and writing/editing), and citations.

Additionally, as faculty prepare for spring quarter, please know that the Libraries offers a range of resources and services to support teaching face-to-face and online, including the Integrated Academic Literacies Workshop Series. If you decide to request one of our workshops, for the first few weeks of the quarter while classes are occurring online, we will schedule workshop sessions to occur synchronously via Zoom. For more information about our Integrated Academic Literacies Workshops, please send an email to LearningCommons@wwu.edu. For help with discipline-specific research or course materials, please contact the appropriate subject team.

If you need help setting up your online course, designing an online course, or changing the modalities of a course, please contact ATUS/CIAA for more in-depth assistance.

There can be some difficulties in providing and accessing some resources online as not all materials can be streamed due to license or other complexities.

General information on Western Libraries' Media Guidelines include information related to purchasing streaming materials. Information on how faculty can request that the library purchase a license for streaming video is also available in the Media Guidelines, use this form to request the purchase of a streaming license.

If you have shown DVDs in class and want to know if they are available via streaming video, you can search Just.Watch.com to see if a video is available streaming, on what platform it’s available, and if it’s free or if there is a cost. In general, converting DVDs to streaming is not possible due to licensing, but there can be exceptions in some cases. Contact the Media Librarian, Jeff Purdue, for help.

Heritage Resources is exploring creative ways to use online technology to maintain support for teaching, learning and research needs. We are developing training videos on the use of the MABEL platform and strategies for doing primary source research online. We look forward to working with faculty and students to further develop digital content in support of their curricular goals. Contact Heritage.Resources@wwu.edu or call (360) 650-7534 with questions or for more information.

Course Reserves 

The Libraries will continue to support course reserves as much as possible, though due to increased demand the processing time may be longer than usual. Additionally, we are unable to scan physical materials for course reserve until the statewide stay-at-home order has been lifted. Faculty should submit reserve requests as soon as possible. Electronic reserves should become available in the order in which requests are received.

Please note that copyright law applies to all course reserve materials. If you want to learn more about making course materials available online, please review the Teaching Remotely: Copyright guide available via the Libraries’ website. If you need help identifying online materials to support your syllabus for spring, please reach out to your subject team for additional support.

Canvas

If the item you wish to use is available online, you can link out to it from Canvas. You may wish to utilize diligent link-checking, particularly when your students will be needing to use it, to ensure that the item doesn’t disappear.

If the item is something that is part of the Western Libraries collection, it is possible to use the item in Canvas with little restrictions. It is better to link directly to the item, using the EZ Proxy prefix (EBSCO databases do not require it, use the direct link provided) before the URL of the item you wish to link to: http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=

For example, linking to the article “Globalizations are plural” in International Sociology found at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0268580900015002001 would look like this: http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0268580900015002001

If you are needing to scan materials you have on hand to use, start with the first chapter as a way to prepare for the beginning of the quarter. This will fall within Fair Use (see below). Beyond that first chapter, the fair use exemption may be possible to utilize--instructors will need to use the Fair Use Checklist to determine that. Feel free to reach out to the Copyright Librarian for assistance with using the Checklist. Check out the Western Libraries Copyright page for more information: https://library.wwu.edu/use/copyright/copyright-faqs

Fair Use

The Fair Use exemption considers certain uses of copyright works to be fair uses – that is, to not be copyright infringement. Fair use applies to “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” (17 U.S.C. § 107).

Fair use determinations must be made for each intended use and are dependent on a balance of the Four Factors of Fair Use. These are:

1. Purpose or character of the use

2. The nature of the copyrighted Work

3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Tools like the Fair Use Checklist, a roadmap that can help you understand the individual factors and how different uses favor or oppose fair use, the Fair Use Evaluator, which provides the opportunity to describe the use and provide context, and the Codes of Best Practices in Fair Use, which put forth standards of fair use within a discipline, are available to help with fair use determinations.

The TEACH Act?

It is not copyright infringement for teachers and students at nonprofit education institutions (such as Western) to transmit performances (music, movies, etc.) and displays (image, text, etc.) of copyrighted works as a part of a course if certain conditions are met. Further information can be found in the TEACH Act Toolkit. Feel free to reach out to the Copyright Librarian for assistance with using the TEACH Act.

Open Education Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching materials that are openly licensed with a Creative Commons license or materials that already exist in the public domain. Open educational resources are free to students and faculty and do not infringe on copyright laws. That means if you find an OER textbook you want to use, you can attach the whole thing to your CANVAS site without worrying about copyright!

Most OER are digital resources that can be found in a variety of websites online. Check out WWU’s Teaching Handbook “finding” page for places to search for OER. OER are typically organized by subject and by kind of material (digital textbook, journal article, data set, etc.). If you want to get started looking for OER textbooks, we recommend looking at OpenStax or the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library.

Feel free to reach out to the Scholarly Communications Librarian or the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment for assistance.

Physical items from the Libraries’ collections, Summit, or Interlibrary Loan cannot be checked out at this time. Western Libraries continues to follow Governor Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” mandate, and most libraries throughout the region have also temporarily discontinued physical access to materials since library employees providing physical access to collections are not included on the State issued list of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers.

Western Libraries will remain closed through the summer, but is currently exploring the possibility of providing access to library materials when some restrictions are lifted. The Libraries has formed a task force to identify the related safety and feasibility requirements for providing this access, even when the Libraries remains closed. At every step, the Libraries will continue to follow the Governor’s orders and prioritize the health and safety of all library staff, and the health and safety of the people who use the library.

Library personnel look forward to expanding services when it is safe to do so, and once protocols to ensure reasonable and safe processes for managing access to physical items are in place. Until that time, library staff and faculty will continue to actively collaborate with faculty to provide online resources and services. If you would like to request we purchase a title in electronic format, please submit a purchase request via ILLiad and specify e-book as the format. We are happy to purchase electronic copies of books if they are available, meet other standard purchase criteria, and are financially feasible.

When the Libraries is open, we will accept payments at the Circulation Desk. In the meantime, please consider paying fines and fees online. Please note that the due date for all materials currently checked out to patrons has been extended to June 15, 2020.

To limit the spread of COVID-19, we are asking patrons to please keep all library materials through spring quarter. To that end, the Libraries is extending all due dates to June 15 and will be closing all book drops shortly after the statewide stay-at-home order has lifted. (NOTE: Items checked out from Classroom Services may have different due dates than library, Music Library, or STC items. Please check with Classroom Services to confirm equipment due dates.)

Patrons who may not be returning to Bellingham until fall or who may otherwise be unable to return items at the end of spring quarter can return items to the book drop under the Wilson-Haggard skybridge until a few days after the statewide stay-at-home order has lifted. After that point, they should contact Library.Circulation@wwu.edu to discuss specific accommodations (e.g. permission to return items via mail in a clearly marked package).

The due date for all materials currently checked out to patrons has been extended to June 15, 2020. (NOTE: Items checked out from Classroom Services may have different due dates than library, Music Library, or STC items. Please check with Classroom Services to confirm equipment due dates.)

At least for the duration of the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order, it will not be possible to loan physical items from interlibrary loan and the Orbis Cascade Alliance. The Alliance has suspended Summit borrowing until further notice. Please also know that the due date for all materials checked out to patrons will be extended to June 15 (except for items already due after that date). Users may still request articles or other electronic items through interlibrary loan, and all the Libraries’ electronic collections continue to be available.

Document Delivery will be suspended until further notice. Please note that the due date for all materials checked out to patrons will be extended to June 15, 2020, (except for items already due after that date).

The Libraries will continue to support course reserves, though due to increased demand the processing time may be longer than usual. Additionally, we are unable to scan physical materials for course reserve until the statewide stay-at-home order has been lifted. Faculty should submit reserve requests as soon as possible. Electronic reserves should become available in the order in which requests are received.

Please note that copyright law applies to all course reserve materials. If you want to learn more about making course materials available online, please review the Teaching Remotely: Copyright guide available via the Libraries’ website.If you need help identifying online materials to support your syllabus for spring, please reach out to your subject team for additional support.

Yes! For the near future, the Libraries will purchase online copies of books and media already owned in physical form, if they meet other standard purchase criteria and are financially feasible. If you have questions about placing a purchase request, please contact Jesse Thomas, Resource Access Manager (jesse.thomas@wwu.edu) or reach out to your subject team

Heritage Resources staff remain available to assist with research inquiries over the phone and through email. Select digitized content is available through the MABEL platform and additional material may be provided remotely. Unfortunately we are not able to provide physical access to collection materials at this time. Contact Heritage.Resources@wwu.edu or call (360) 650-7534 for more information or to submit inquiries.