Create Your Own E-reserves: Seamless Linking to Library Content in Moodle  

Linking to Electronic Journals from the Library's Catalog

Start your journal title search from the Library's homepage by clicking on the Journals tab and entering a journal title in the search box. 

Time is the example being used here.   After getting the search results list, select Time/ [Electronic Resource] by clicking on it.

At the next screen, select MARC display button from the menu at the top of the page.

The MARC display will be a list of numbers with text to the right (see image below).  These are "field numbers."   Scroll down until you see the number 856  40 in the left margin.  For each database the Library has an electronic subscription to Time, there will be an 856  40 field and a unique URL.  You'll see the database title, in this example Academic Search Premier, then the coverage of the journal available, then the URL to the journal.  Copy the URL but do not copy the letter u that is in front of the https, only copy from https through to the end of the word site.  Paste this URL into your Moodle page and students will have remote and on campus access to the journal Time.  Follow these same steps for any journal title to provide remote access through your Moodle pages. NOTE: these URL's already have the EZProxy prefix added at the beginning of them.  The URL's copied as you see them in the MARC records are complete for use in remote access.

From the MARC record above, this is the unique URL that will allow one-click access to the journal: 

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/
direct.asp?db=aph&jid=TIM&scope=site

The https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url= portion must be listed within the 856 field. If you do not see this on the record of a particular journal you want to use, go to the Need Help tab for contact information. 

You can use the links to any of the videos available from the title list pages at http://media.nclive.org/browse_videos.phtml.  You can right-click on any of the blue title links, select Copy Link Location and paste into your document. That link will be persistent.

The links should look something like:

http://media.nclive.org/play_video.php?vid=233 

Now add  https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=  at the beginning of the URL

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url= http://media.nclive.org/play_video.php?vid=233

to create an accessible link for your Moodle students.

Another option is to bookmark a point within a video using the "Create Bookmark" button in the video player.  This feature will create a persistent URL to a specific point within a video.  Add the https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=  and your students will have access.  

Some of the Library’s research databases use a numeric identifier called a DOI or Digital Object Identifier as a permanent link back to articles.   GeoScienceWorld is one such database. This is an example illustrating where to locate a DOI within the abstract of a full text article that can be found in GeoScienceWorld:

“Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; June 2011; v. 101; no. 3; p. 1024-1038; DOI: 10.1785/0120100190” 

To make this article accessible to your students from off campus, add the following modified Atkins Library EZProxy url at the beginning of the numeric DOI.  https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/

For the above article example, the numeric identifier is 10.1785/0120100190. The completed link would be

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/0120100190.

Your students should have immediate access to the article.

Kathryn Park at COM Library graciously shared the template for this LibGuide.

Thank you, Kathryn!

This guide provides directions for how to add direct links to library content in Moodle, including:

• Electronic journals available via the library's catalog
• Individual articles from electronic journals in the library's catalog
• Electronic databases (such as EBSCO Host, ProQuest)
• Journals indexed in electronic databases
• Individual articles from databases
• Videos from NC Live's PBS collection
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI's)

Faculty can use these directions to create electronic reserves within Moodle for themselves.

However, full service e-Reserves has been a long-standing popular service and continues to be available.  Click the Full Service eReserves tab for more information.

What's the technical difference between using EZProxy links in Moodle and my course's eReserves?

EZProxy links allow for direct linking in Moodle to content in the library’s electronic databases. On- and off-campus authorized users can click directly into the resource from the Moodle link.  Faculty members can create these links themselves or Atkins Library Course Reserves will assist with setting up the EZProxy links or other electronic materials into your Moodle classroom.  A benefit to using EZProxy links in Moodle rather than storing files, is that links, as facts, are not copyright-able, i.e., the URL (web address) or title of the page or work does not implicate the rights of the copyright holder, because one hasn't copied, displayed, modified, performed or distributed the work.

Course eReserves is a long-standing library service that provides access to  faculty-owned and library-owned materials, as well as electronic items, for  individual classes.  Library staff assist with all the steps involved in making materials available.  EReserves materials are accessed through the library web site and if added to Moodle, the Course eReserves links may require students to make additional clicks and possibly enter a class specific password.

Both methods require copyright compliance.  Materials added by course reserves staff will be given a copyright evaluation prior to posting.  If not using EZProxy, faculty are required to make the copyright compliance determination on materials they post.  

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=

Add this prefix (aka the EZProxy Prefix) to the URL for an article/journal/database/video URL to links you post in Moodle and students won't have to log in a second time to access the library's subscription resources.

Remember to test your links from off campus.  Free websites or free resources do not need the EZProxy prefix (e.g., Google Magazines or CharlotteObserver.com)  These free links do not have to go through the EZProxy whereas Library subscribed resources need to pass through the Library's EZProxy server to confirm that users are accessing through the UNC Charlotte network.  

What is EZProxy?

EZProxy is a proxy server used by Atkins Library to authenticate legal users of our subscription resources. The proxy server ignores the prefix on campus, so on-campus users do not have to log in. To allow access for off-campus users, instructors can manually add the EZProxy prefix to the URL of the item they wish to link. 

EZProxy allows UNC Charlotte off-campus users to access the library's subscription materials within Moodle without having to log in a second time.  

How Does it Work?

EZProxy Prefix + Permanent URL to material =

one-click access to library content

Step-by-Step Directions

1. Type (or copy and paste) the EZProxy Prefix:  

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=

2. Append the URL of the database, article, or journal you wish to link to to the EZ Proxy link listed in Step 1.  For example, the link to the EBSCO Host database is:

http://search.ebscohost.com  

3.  The new link is a combination of the EZ Proxy Prefix + the database URL and will allow students to view content without logging in a second time: For example, the link for the EBSCO Host database that can be added to Moodle is:  

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com

In the example URL above, the text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the database URL.

The EZProxy prefix only works with durable (also called static, stable, persistant or permalink) URLs. These types of URL's are permanent.  Most URLs in a database search are dynamic, meaning they are generated by the database during the search and are not permanent pages. In most cases you can not simply copy/paste a URL displayed in your browser and add the EZProxy prefix to it.  The instructions below show you how to locate durable URLs for journals and articles from our research databases. 

Create Links to Specific EBSCO Articles

EBSCO makes it easy to create a link through which on-campus and off-campus students can access a specific article. Enter your keywords into the search box.  When the results list appears, click on an article's title to open the article abstract.   Select the Permalink icon from the menu bar on the right side of the screen.  A popup will appear displaying the Permalink.  Copy & paste that link into your document.  Next, add the EZProxy prefix to the beginning of the Permalink. 

This URL is the complete URL for remote access to the article "Keats and Romanticism" by Harold Bloom that displays in the image below:  

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10036393&site=ehost-live

The text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the article URL.

The image below highlights the location of the article permalink.

Create Links to Specific EBSCO Journals

Within the same citation information of an article abstract, click on the title of the journal (labeled Source), then click on Alert/Save/Share. A popup will appear displaying the persistent link to the journal.  Copy/paste this link into a webpage or Moodle page and place the EZProxy prefix in front of the link to make one long URL string. 

OR 

You can copy/paste the URL listed in the "Link to this Publication" text box on the left side of a journal's bibliographic screen.

 This URL is the complete URL for remote access to the journal Cognitive Systems Research.  

http://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&jid=JB5&site=ehost-live

The text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the journal URL.

The image below highlights the two locations where persistent links to journals can be located. 

Create Links to Searches

Once you have a search results list simply click the Alert/Save/Share option at the top of your results list to get the Permalink, as highlighted in yellow in the image below. You can also create an alert, add to your folder, or create an RSS feed to add to your news reader.

Example: Search for William Faulkner, full text, scholarly publications.

Linking to Journal Articles in JSTOR

Once you have located an article in JSTOR that you wish to link to, click on its title. At the top of the article page along with the citation information you will see   "Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25190307".  (Stable URL is JSTOR's term for permanent link.) Copy/paste this URL to your Moodle page, add the EZProxy prefix to the front of this URL and the article will be accessible to your students on and off campus.

The complete URL pointing to the example article used here would be:  

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25190307

The text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the article URL.   

The example article is "Fatal Attraction: Living with Earthquakes, the Growth of Villages into Megacities, and Earthquake Vulnerability in the Modern World" by James Jackson and published in the journal Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

The image below highlights where to locate an Article Stable URL in a JSTOR listing:

Conduct a search in ProQuest.   After selecting the article you want to share,  you can either click on the Cite This icon shown above the article.

The URL that should be constructed using the example article above is:

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/758416702?accountid=14605

The text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the article URL.   

The article URL can also be found by scrolling further down the screen to Indexing (details) and look for Document URL.

Link to CQ Researcher Reports

Find desired report by browsing or searching within the CQ Researcher database. The example report used below is "Combating Plagiarism" by B. Hansen. After report loads in pop-up window, click on the drop-down menu arrow beside "Email a link back to..." and select full report.   Follow the instructions to send an email to yourself.  Within the email you receive will be a stable URL pointing back to the full report that you can combine with the EZProxy prefix and embed into your Moodle pages. 

The complete URL pointing to the example article used here is:

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2003091900

The text in green is the EZProxy prefix that will allow remote access.  The text in blue is the article URL.