Moodle and Canvas
Linking to Subject and Class Guides
Hekman librarians have produced Subject and Class Guides to assist faculty in finding reliable starting places for your students' research. To link to one of these guides, locate the relevant guide and copy and paste the address into your course page.
Linking to Research Databases
If you have an assignment that requires the use of a specific research database, you can link to that database's landing page directly from your Moodle or Canvas course. To find the URL for the database, look for the database on our list of research databases and copy and paste the URL.
Linking to Articles in Research Databases
The best way to make an article available to your students is to link directly to the article in one of our licensed resources. The library subscribes to over 200 article databases. Many of the items you wish to post to your course page may already be in electronic form. Although downloading PDF articles from these licensed resources for your own scholarly use is acceptable, the licensing terms often restrict using those same PDFs on learning platforms. Posting a PDF file rather than linking to articles may violate the licensing contracts, possibly resulting in the loss of access to a resource for the entire college community.
Copying the URL in a subscription database from the address bar in your browser does not always give you a link that will work for your students. Too often it includes information specific to your search session that will not work for a different person or at a different time.
Below are instructions for how to find a persistent (stable, durable) link in commonly used databases.
Find a licensed version of the article or book chapter you wish to post.*
- Book chapters: Search for the book title in the library catalog. If an electronic version is available, there will be a link in the record.
- Articles: Find a database or ejournal that contains the article. If you have a citation, search the e-journal locator or library catalog by journal title to see if the library has it in electronic form. Alternatively, you can find a database in your field using the databases by subject function and then search the database for your article.
Find a permanent (sometimes called persistent or durable) link to the article you need. Different databases put these permanent links in different places on their webpages. Examples:
- JSTOR: Click on cite this item and you will see the stable URL. It will look something like this: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24810524.
- EBSCO databases: Look to the right of the full article display and you will see permalink. It will look something like this: http://search.ebscohost.com.lib-proxy.calvin.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=16670261&site=ehost-live.
- ProQuest: At the end of the document details there is a field labeled Document URL. It will look something like this: https://search.proquest.com/docview/847981763?accountid=9844.
To ensure that students off campus can access the article, the following string must be included before the persistent link.
https://lib-proxy.calvin.edu/login?url=[insert the URL you found using the instructions above, including http://, here with no space after the "="]
Linking to the Library Catalog
The URL for the library's catalog is: https://ulysses.calvin.edu. Simply copy and paste this address into any course page.
Linking to a List of Sources in the Library Catalog
Custom searches can be designed so that predictable results display when the link is clicked. Perform your desired search and copy the URL from the results page so students can run the same search.
*If you have questions about licenses, consult Katherine Swart, Collection Development Librarian.
Related Pages:
Faculty 
Moodle and Canvas