Liaison Librarians

Course Resources

• Extensive online resources including including over 5 million eBooks, 105,000+ eJournals, 191,878 streaming videos, 157 eResources, which can be accessed with your Humber login credentials and incorporated into Blackboard.
• Faculty looking for online, course-related readings and/or streaming videos can contact their liaison librarian or the copyright team at copyright@humber.ca.

• The Library provides a digital scanning service if you would like to provide students with access to excerpts from print materials in the collection.

Research Guides and Instruction

• Contact your librarian to explore in-person and online class instruction opportunities.
• Research guides tailored to many programs and subjects can be shared in Blackboard. Research guides provide tailored resources and research tips.
• For an introduction to library research, consider linking to Library Research Tutorial – The Basics.
• Faculty are also encouraged to explore the Research & Digital Literacy Instruction page and select “eLearning” as the delivery method for existing online research supports.

Copyright Guidance

• Be aware that during this time, Humber's Fair Dealing Policy is the official guide for the​ use of copyrighted material for your teaching.
• Visit the Library's copyright website for​ more details and examples on how to legally and ethically utilize a wide variety of​ content.
• If you have any questions please contact copyright@humber.ca.

Video Tutorials

• Self-help videos on research and APA. can be shared in course sites.

Digital Literacy

• The Idea Lab offers a suite of online resources to support the creation of digital media such as infographics, narrated PowerPoint videos, podcasts, and more.

The Learning Portal

• The Learning Portal is available to faculty to support a range of teaching needs. A faculty toolkit and Blackboard cartridges are available for many teaching topics.

Your librarian offers the following services. Contact them to start the conversation.

• Student research skill development
  • Defining research topic
  • Understanding the importance of various sources
  • Developing a search strategy
  • Knowing what Humber’s library offers
  • Finding and accessing information
  • Critically evaluating resources
  • Ethical information use (ie: plagiarism/citation)
• Resource suggestions for your classroom and your own research
• Collection development and new program collection assessments
• Reference and consultation services (online and in-person)
• Research guide creation for your programs and courses
• Online tutorials and handouts on various research topics and skills
• Student outreach and orientation

As we approached the fall 2020 semester, library staff worked hard to provide alternative access to our print textbook collection, and we developed new approaches to how we acquire course textbooks. With many courses being offered solely online, and with students having limited access to campus, we are doing all we can to leverage our existing electronic resources and to purchase new ones with faculty input.

Unfortunately, this work is hampered by textbook publishers who do not provide electronic purchasing options for libraries. Approximately 90% of course textbooks are unavailable to the Library in any format other than print. Many textbook publishers have built their profit models around selling e-textbooks directly to students and do not allow for institutional purchase. We also understand that the cost of textbooks and other course materials can represent a major financial hurdle for students at Humber College.

Despite the Library’s commitment to provide access to required textbooks and course materials to assist students who are unable to purchase their own, the following publishers will not allow us to purchase an e-textbook version of their publications:

• Pearson
• Cengage
• Milady
• Houghton
• McGraw Hill
• Oxford University Press Canada (Textbook Division)
• Emond
• Elsevier imprints including:
  • Elsevier Health Science
  • Mosby
  • Saunders
  • Thieme

For courses that have adopted textbooks by these publishers, students who do not purchase the textbook will not have any alternative access to the textbook content.

We are working with faculty to explore and identify viable textbook alternatives, including:

1. Using an existing Book in the relevant subject area from the library’s eBook collection or exploring the purchase of new eBook titles as recommended by faculty. There are many academic e-books that aren’t considered textbooks and are therefore available for the Library to purchase.
2. Adopting an open educational resource (OER). OERs are freely available educational materials that are openly licensed to allow for re-use and modification by instructors.
3. Creating a Course Resources Page:
   • Course Resources Pages include links to library database articles, eBooks, streaming video and web content.
   • They are designed to be uploaded to Blackboard and can be organized by week or topic.
   • The Course Resources team can also assist with acquiring access to articles not available through our databases and knowing what content can be uploaded into Blackboard and made available to students under Humber’s Fair Dealing policy.

For more information on these options, please contact your liaison librarian using the section below.

Note: Thank you to our colleagues at University of Guelph Library for allowing Humber Libraries to adapt their statement.