Reserving Course Materials

The University of Alberta Library uses Talis Aspire for Course Materials and Reading Lists.

Adding any item to a course reading list will:

  • create links to library resources and web content
  • Initiate the purchase of e-books and print materials (where possible)
  • make print items available for short-term loan
  • initiate digitization of a chapter/print article

Questions? Email: coursemat@ualberta.ca.

Instructions for Reserving Course Materials
(short-term loan)

  • 1. Create a simple reading list, use your course title (i.e. ANTHR 208) as the list name and select the term - this links your course texts and other physical resources with your course.
  • 2. Use the Add Resource button to locate the title of your items.
  • 3. Click the Review & Publish button.
  • 4. Your course resources will be added to Course Materials once available.

Library Textbook Lending

The Bookstore supplies the Library with lists of assigned course materials before the start of each term. Using these lists, we work to purchase materials to supplement and expand student access to course resources, in print or electronic format, if they are available for purchase. Some publishers will not sell textbooks to libraries. Where print textbooks are available, the following parameters guide how many copies of each textbook we will purchase.

  • We acquire only required textbooks (ie., not just recommended).
  • If we can purchase an ebook version of a textbook, we do so.
  • If no ebook is available, we buy print copies if they are available. For courses with up to 125 students, we buy one (1) copy. For courses with more than 125 students, we will buy up to five (5) copies in total.
    • Print textbooks that the library does not already own must be ordered, shipped, catalogued, and processed before they reach the shelf. Therefore, six weeks advanced notice is required for items that need to be available at the start of term.
  • Print textbooks are located in the corresponding library's Course Materials collection.
  • Print textbooks can generally be borrowed for two hours at a time.
  • A Talis Aspire list for the course is created by library staff and the items acquired through the Textbook Lending Program are added. If you create your own list, you can ask us to remove the library created list.

Other Resources for Instructors

Library staff can help you identify library materials, or alternative sources of course material that is both online, and no-cost or low-cost to students.

Alternatives to print textbooks include:

  • Open Educational Resources: we can search for open online textbooks, and provide you with a list of high quality options that are free to use and share.
  • Open textbooks can be adapted or created with Pressbooks.
  • Ebooks and other online resources that are already in our collection: including ebooks, reference sources and articles in online databases. Most of these have no limits on the number of users that can access them.
  • Purchase materials on demand: if we do not currently own an ebook version, we can investigate purchasing titles for our collection.
Consult with your subject Librarian

Librarians can advise about assigning online library resources, such as ebooks, articles, and streaming film and music.