Download the Faculty and Instructors Guide.
Services
Borrowing
Your UBCcard, is both your institutional ID and your Library card. You can apply online or in-person at the Carding Office in the UBC Bookstore. At Okanagan, see How & Where to Get your UBCcard.
- Visiting scholars and emeritus faculty members: apply in person at Borrower Services for a library card.
If you hold an active appointment with and are paid by UBC, you have full access to UBC Library's print and electronic collections. This is true even if you work at a distance from UBC. In this case, you are eligible for home delivery by means of our Interlibrary Loans Department. To access the electronic collections remotely, you will need a valid UBC cwl account. |
If you need a Faculty Authorization Card for research assistants, associates and secretarial staff, fill out the UBC Library Card Application Form for Faculty Authorized Users (PDF) and bring it in-person to the Borrower Services desk at your UBC Library branch.
Suggest a Book
- You can suggest a book or other materials using Suggest a Book or Other Material.
Media Booking
As long as your media item is available, you do not need to pre-book it. In this case, you can simply sign it out from the owning branch. Media Booking is only necessary if you wish to guarantee availability on a specific date.
- To guarantee availability of videos, films or DVDs for classroom presentation on a specific date, you will need to make a booking 2 - 3 weeks in advance. Use the online UBC Library Media Booking System.
- Note: Bookings are available for items in Koerner, Education, Woodward, Okanagan, and David Lam Libraries ONLY, and for the BC ELN Media Collection.
- For more information about Media Booking services, please see the Videos and Films.
Interlibrary Loans and Document Delivery
You can borrow materials from other institutions if UBC Library does not own them by completing this online form at Borrowing from non-UBC Libraries – InterLibrary Loan.
- If you are working at a distance (within Canada or the US) from any of the UBC campuses, choose "Extension Library" as your pickup location.
Use Document Delivery to get materials from another UBC campus. Document delivery is not available to transfer materials between branches on the same campus.
- If you find an item in the Library catalogue that is only available at another campus - Click the "Order via Document Delivery" link found in the item record and login using your UBC Card barcode and PIN.
- Next choose "loan" and then you will be prompted to select a pickup location.
- If you are distant from all UBC campus locations and reside within Canada or the US, you should email ill.lend@ubc.ca for further assistance.
Visiting Another Institution
You may be able to borrow materials from other institutions that you plan to visit. UBC Library is covered by the Canadian University Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement (CURBA). This agreement provides UBC students, faculty and staff with free borrowing privileges at participating libraries across Canada and at some institutions in the U.S.
- Note, borrowing privileges vary among libraries and occasionally fees for services may be charged. Please contact the library that you will be visiting to learn about your privileges and any fees.
- For more information, see Reciprocal Borrowing for UBC Students, Faculty & Staff.
Course Reserves
Library Online Course Reserves
UBC Library's course reserves and readings system is online and available by logging into Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR). Access to LOCR is available via Canvas or the LOCR Standalone Site.
Login to LOCR with your CWL and all your courses for the next 6 months should appear automatically. LOCR enables you to manage a number of previously disparate activities including:
- requesting print and electronic reserves
- displaying location information about print reserves
- providing stable links to online readings and other online formats such as streaming audio or video clips.
Complete, step-by-step instructions with screenshots are available at Using Course Reserves.
Print Books
Note: it can take up to 14 days for items which the Library owns to be placed on short term loan. It may take 2 to 3 months to order and process books that the Library does not currently own.
You can choose a 2-hour, 1-day, or 3-day loan period for your students when entering your print book requests into the online course reserves system. You will find the "Select a Loan Period" drop-down menu at the top of the Item Information form.
- If more than one faculty member requests the same document or book, particularly if there are a limited number of copies, the loan period may be shortened.
Copyright & You
One intellectual property right that is very important to UBC faculty, staff and students is copyright. Infringing copyright is a serious matter and UBC requires each of its faculty, staff and students to comply with copyright. See the suite of guides, links and helpful information in the Instructors portal and the Copyright at UBC website. |
Print Materials
If you wish to scan or photocopy a substantial part of copyrighted work, you may only do so if you have permission from the copyright holder or if your copying falls within one of the exceptions set out in the Copyright Act. The University has prepared Copyright Guidelines, Fair Dealing Requirements, and a number of Copyright FAQs that outline the exceptions available to you and how they should be applied in particular situations. If you have questions about the information in these resources, please refer to the Contacts page or send your query directly to copyright.services@ubc.ca.
- Note: you can copy and distribute short excerpts from print materials to your students, provided that you comply with UBC's Fair Dealing Requirements.
- If you want to distribute copies that exceed the copying thresholds in the Fair Dealing Requirements, then UBC Bookstore will obtain copyright clearances (permission from rights holders) for these materials and make them available to your students as a course pack. The Bookstore requires 2 - 3 weeks notice before start of term "RUSH" periods and complete citation information to produce your course pack on time. See the Bookstore's Custom Course Packs for Curriculum page for more information.
Materials on the Web
Resources such as webpages, online documents, digital images, sound & video clips, software, computer files etc are also protected by copyright, so if you want to use them, you have to either fall within one of the Copyright Act’s exceptions or have permission from the copyright owner. For more information about using internet materials for educational purposes, please see UBC's Instructor FAQ or email copyright.services@ubc.ca for assistance.
Please note that materials on the web are often subject to restrictions that limit your ability to use these materials under Fair Dealing and the other exceptions in the Copyright Act. |
Website legal notices (usually labelled "terms of use" or "terms of service") and end-user license agreements (or "click-through" agreements) are generally understood to be legally enforceable contracts, and the terms of these contracts often restrict the making or dissemination of copies and limit Fair Dealing rights.
- If there is a conflict between the terms of a contract and the Fair Dealing Requirements, then the terms of the contract apply so it is important to check the terms of any relevant legal notices or agreements before copying or distributing materials that you obtain online.
- Similar usage restrictions also apply to many online materials that are licensed through UBC Library. For more information on these restrictions, please click on the "Licensed Materials" tab, above.
Licensed Materials
Electronic Materials licensed by UBC Library
The Library licenses many electronic resources from publishers, such as ebooks, ejournals, image databases and streaming media. The license (or contract) determines how that material may be used, and some licenses may restrict the making or dissemination of copies and limit fair dealing rights. If the terms of a licence prohibit uses that would otherwise be permitted by an exception in the Copyright Act, then the terms of the licence apply.
Each license for each resource has a different set of permitted uses. Before sharing one of these resources with your students, you will need to ensure that you are permitted to do so in the manner you intend. For example, one journal may permit you to upload an article, book chapter, image, map, media clip etc. into your online course or professional webpage while another may require that you provide your students with a link to the item instead. When in doubt, provide students with a link. See below for information on how to provide students with stable/permanent links to licensed materials.
License Information Database
"The University of British Columbia licenses many electronic resources for its staff, faculty, and current students including indexes, databases, e-journals, and e-books. Access to these resources is governed by contractual agreements (license agreements) with resource providers.....Violations of our license terms by anyone can result in the loss of access to that resource for the entire university community." (License Information, UBC Library) |
To avoid violating the University's license agreements, please check the permitted uses for the Library's License Information database to see the permitted uses granted by each of the Library's content providers, i.e, the publisher or database host that provides the item(s) you wish to share.
- To determine the permitted uses of a specific journal's content:
- click the "Journals" tab in the search box on the Library Homepage
- type in the title of the journal you are searching for
- on the results screen, locate the relevant journal
- click on the "permitted uses" button beside the journal name - this will take you to a full explanation of the permitted uses for that particular journal's content.
- NOTE: Many journals are obtained as part of a large package and thus may not be found in the License Information database under their individual titles.
- For further assistance you can contact your Subject Liaison Librarian or E-Journal Help.
Creating Permanent Links to Articles
Most license agreements permit you to provide a Persistent Link (also known as PURLS, Permalinks, Static Links, and/or Stable URLs) that will take your students to the licensed version of the article. You can use the Library's Course Reserve Software via Canvas to create persistent links to required readings or you can create your own links to individual resources.
- To learn more about using Library course reserves in Canvas, see our guide to Course Reserves.
- For instructions on creating links to Library resources, visit: Linking to Resources
Research & Teaching
Subject Librarians
Subject Librarians serve as the primary liaison between the Library and the academic departments on campus. They provide skilled reference assistance, manage the library's collections and provide instructional support to faculty. Subject librarians are also available to work with you to assist in course planning.
- This ensures that the Library is aware of new research and learning priorities.
- Collaborations of this nature also ensure that the Library has the resources your students need to complete their assignments and that you need to pursue your research interests.
For more information on our teaching & learning services and activities, see Teaching and Learning.
Your liaison can also assist you by:
- Alerting you to new resources in your discipline
- Showing you how to use current awareness tools
- Suggesting resources for your research
- Purchasing materials relevant to your research. You can also suggest a book or other materials using our online form
Information Literacy Toolkit for Faculty and Instructors
The Faculty Information Literacy Toolkit, created in partnership with UBC librarians, faculty members, and students, was developed to support the creation of research assignments and instruction that address students' information literacy levels and needs.
The toolkit includes:
- Tips for developing a research assignment that addresses the five information literacy skills outlined
- Resources and tools from UBC Library and other institutions that assist in developing student research skills
- An information literacy assignment checklist that offers a way to reflectively assess your own assignments
- Examples of research assignments that focus on the information literacy skills of emerging academic researchers
- Additional resources and materials
RefWorks
RefWorks is an online citation management database. It allows you to store, organize and share citations with others. RefWorks also formats citations in a wide variety of citation styles; creates a bibliography in seconds; and has a very handy footnote add-on called Write-N-Cite. For more information, to create an account and/or to log into UBC's RefWorks account see the Library Refworks guide.
Workshops
The Library and the Chapman Learning Commons offer a variety of workshop on library and research-related topics throughout the year. For example, workshops on using RefWorks are frequently offered. Other workshop topics of interest to faculty have included:
- Finding and using Statistics Canada data
- Incorporating media-rich resources in your teaching
- Getting published
- Using Zotero
- Systematic Review/Literature Search
- Using subject-specific databases like PubMed, Ovid, MEDLINE, PsycInfo and more
- Copyright
- Current Awareness Tools
You can consult the complete list of Library and Learning Commons workshops online: Library Instruction and Booking System (LIBS).
cIRcle
cIRcle is UBC's institutional repository "for published and unpublished materials created by the University of British Columbia." The repository provides you with a means to increase exposure to your work - while retaining your moral authority over it - and to ensure that it will be preserved in perpetuity.
- cIRcle welcomes research and teaching materials from faculty and staff as well as exemplary undergraduate research.
- For more information and to create your account see the cIRcle website.
Research Data Management
- This website, developed and maintained by UBC Library, provides valuable information and resources related to UBC's Research Data management strategy. If you are producing, reusing or interested in preserving and sharing your research data, please visit the Research Data Management website.
Teaching Support
Your liaison librarian can:
- Create discipline-specific research guides that your students can use to find appropriate sources for their research projects.
- Collaborate with you to produce course specific and/or assignment specific guides.
- Get the process started by contacting your liaison librarian directly.
- Create online tutorials covering a specific topic that you request.
- Deliver in-person or online instruction sessions. In-person instruction can be offered in your classroom or at a library computer lab.
Flexible Learning
To enhance learning outcomes for students while offering greater access to resources and services, the Library provides faculty with a variety of support to develop flexible learning classroom environments, including digital collections, discipline-specific research & instructional support, copyright services and much more.
Plagiarism and Turnitin
"Evidence from UBC and elsewhere suggests that plagiarism is increasing.... The Internet has made plagiarizing easier. For example, there are many places from which to copy or purchase material, and simply cutting and pasting text from Internet sources directly into papers is relatively easy" (Academic Integrity. UBC Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic).
- UBC subscribes to the Turnitin, which is a software program that "scans (a) paper and reports on originality (on a scale from 1 to 5).... (It will detect copying even if a student replaces up to 50% of the words in a paragraph) (Turnitin at UBC)."
- You are not required to use Turnitin with your students but it can be a helpful tool.
- The Turnitin website offers a variety of free training tools and resources on its Support Wizard and its Instructor Quick Start Guide.
- The Chapman Learning Commons has an interactive tutorial for students to help them Avoid Plagiarism.
Learner Support
The Library also offers general support and services for students:
- Librarians provide reference assistance to you and your students in person, by phone, via email or online chat.
- The Library offers a variety of workshops for students on topics such as library research skills, bibliographic management software (Refworks, Zotero, Mendeley), and more. You can find a listing of all our workshops at Library Instruction and Booking System (LIBS
- The Library offers a range of learning support for students:
- UBC Learning Commons provides writing & scholarly communication support, tutoring and coaching services for undergraduate students. Students can receive subject-specific coaching in the areas they need most, technology help, academic advising and more.
- The Canaccord Learning Commons provides support for all Sauder students – including MBAs, MM ECM, and all other degree programs – with learning support services and opportunities to hone the skills that will make them successful at Sauder and in the work world.
- The Research Commons at Koerner Library provides graduate student support with thesis formatting, citation management services and interdisciplinary research discussions (FIREtalks). These services are provided by graduate students, for graduate students.