Library services and supports for teaching and learning

The University of Waterloo Library provides a range of resources and instructional materials to assist instructors with course planning and content delivery in all modalities. The Library develops and maintains a wide variety of open, asynchronous educational materials available through the Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR) or you may reach out to your librarian for course integrated support in person or through online delivery (e.g. LEARN, MS Teams, Zoom).

Reducing course materials costs supports students and is a step you can take toward equity. Your librarian can assist you in identifying open access and library-licensed materials for no cost use or adaptation within your courses.

Other readings can be provided to your students through course reserves. Log in to the Course reserves system to place new requests, or to clone reserve lists from a previous term. Reserves staff will try where possible to replace print resources with content that is already digitally available, as well as ensure that posted material:

• Can be accessed through the “Get Course Reserves” link in LEARN
• Is copyright compliant
• Meets Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) standards

Requests will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Please place your requests as soon as possible. For material that requires copyright clearance, several weeks may be needed in some cases to obtain permission and/or licensing. Questions about Course Reserves can be directed to libreser@uwaterloo.ca

The Library and librarians are here to support student learning, research, and information seeking. This can take the form of course integrated instruction, reference questions, or individual and group consultations. For information on course integrated instruction, or for in-person or virtual consultations (by appointment) contact your librarian. Reference services are available through the Ask us service across a variety of modalities.

You may additionally consider including the contact information for your librarian within your course information or syllabus as students may be unaware such services are available, but in need of greater assistance.

Interlibrary loans are available for print or e-delivery, depending on your preference and the format and copyright or licensing permissions of the original material. This can mean:

• Print books and materials shared from partner libraries
• Portions of an ebook that are owned by another library, up to the amount allowable by licensing agreements
• Articles that are in online journals owned by other libraries, where their license allows for ILL
• Scanned portions of print items, if these can be located at another library

Please reach out to copyright@uwaterloo.ca service or consult the Copyright for teaching resource if you need support in any of these areas. In the unusual event that needed copyright permissions cannot be secured, your librarian can help identify appropriate alternative resources.