Course Library: Building Resource Lists in Canvas

To structure your Course Library, you can create sections to organize resources by week, topic, type, etc.

You can choose an organizing structure when you create your list, or add sections as you build the list.

Click + Add > New section

Provide Title and optional description, and choose where you'd like it to appear in the list. > Click Add.

Unless you want students to only have access to this section for a limited portion of the course, disregard the Start/End dates and leave the checkbox blank.

You can also select where this section appears in the list. In the image above, the section will be added last, at the end of the list. But you could choose a different position in the list as well.

You can add tags to items. To add a tag to an existing citation:

1. Mouse over the citation you want to tag.
2. Click the item menu (three dots)
3. Choose item actions
4. Click Add tag.

Current available tags are:

Student facing:

• Essential
• Optional
• Recommended
• Lecture readings

Library facing:

• Purchase request - using this tag is one way to tell the library that you want us to purchase an item for your students to use in your course.
• Instructor personal copy - use this tag to inform us that you will be bringing your own copy to the library for your students to use.

There are two types of notes that you can add to an item in your Course Library.

Note for students

This is a note addressed to your students, giving them instructions or additional information about the resource.

You add a note to students when you add the item to your list by choosing the option to "add and edit", and then opening the "item actions" tab.

You can also add a note for students after an item has been added to your list, by clicking on "full details" and choosing the "item actions" tab.

See this page for more details on notes for students.

Private note

Another type of note available to you is the private note.  You can enter private notes visible only to yourself using the same options listed above, but choosing the "item details" tab in the "edit item" window.

Be aware that if you view the list as a student, you will see those private notes, because you are logged in as you. Your students will not see them.

You can rearrange items and sections in your course library by pointing the cursor on the drag handle that pops up to the left of the title and Drag Citation or Drag Section accordingly.

To see the drag handle for a section, the section must be collapsed. In the illustration above, you would click the blue arrow next to "Week 3" in order to collapse the section. Then you can drag the section to a new position in the list.