How to use Library resources in your courses

Guidelines below will help you find the most reachable, accessible, and usable Library resources for the classroom. 

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Using Library materials in a course

  1. Link to electronic content in the Library’s collections instead of uploading a PDF to your Canvas site, to provide the most accessible materials.
  2. For course readings not available electronically in the Library’s collections, there are a few options. You can:
    • Request a scan of Library-owned material. This option is limited to 1 chapter of a book or less than 10%, due to copyright limitations.
    • Contact your subject liaison to determine if it may be possible for the library to acquire an electronic copy of the text you’d like to assign.
    • Place a print copy of the material on physical reserve for students to access in person.
    • Require purchase of the item as a course textbook.
    • Or, if there is flexibility, find an alternative reading. Subject librarians are happy to help you identify material that meets your requirements.
  3. For video material:

Making sure your materials are reachable from off-Grounds 

There are two tools for getting access to materials available when you or your students aren’t physically at UVA. 

  1. EZproxy: When you provide a link to students, use a version that begins with “https://proxy1.library.virginia.edu/login?url=”. Learn more and use the Proxy Link Generator.
  2. VPN, “UVA Anywhere”: This software is necessary to access many Library resources when the user is off campus. Learn more about UVA’s VPN. 

Creating accessible documents

For course material, HTML web pages and Word documents are often more accessible than PDF files — but there are best practices for all types of documents. For example:

  • Avoid using the “Print to PDF” function. It erases document tagging, resulting in an inaccessible file.
  • In Word documents, use font sizes of 12pt or larger, and apply document structure.
  • In PowerPoint, use the suggested slide layouts: these will apply meaningful structure, such as to the “title” area.
  • Learn best practices for Word documents, PowerPoint, and PDF files. 

Scanning your own document? The Library has several scanners with optical character recognition (OCR), which provides better accessibility than the image alone. See scanners and their locations. 

Fixing an existing document 

Repairing PDFs: Word docs and web resources are often more accessible than PDFs. But, if using a PDF is unavoidable, there are certain steps to make sure the file is usable. Read more about how to make an existing PDF file more accessible. 

If your PDF was a scan provided by the UVA Library instructional scanning service: The Library will help. Visit the request page in your Virgo account and select "PDF remediation request." 

SensusAccess document converter can remediate inaccessible documents such as image-only PDF files, scanned documents, pictures of text, LaTeX documents, and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into more accessible formats.

Learn more about repairs for Word documents, PowerPoint, and PDF files. 

Make sure your Canvas course is accessible

UVA’s Learning Technologies team has created several tools to assist in Canvas: