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University Library

Adding the Library to your Canvas Course

Add articles from library resources!

The University Library subscribes to over 35,000 academic journals, magazines, and newspapers, most of which are available online.

You can link directly to electronic articles from the library's catalog or through the library's databases. We recommend you link directly to the library's resources, rather than upload PDFs, because it provides students context for the information's source, it is good copyright practice, and allows the library to count usage.

How to link to articles in Canvas

How to add articles to your Canvas page:

  1. Find an electronic copy of an article. Use Journal Search in the Library's catalog, or search for the title, author, or publication date of the article in the Library's Advanced Search.image of the permalink Having trouble finding your article? Ask your subject librarian for help.                             
  2. Find the permalink for the article.  A permalink is a permanent URL that will consistently link back to the same page. The URL at the top of your browser screen doesn't always do this.
  3. Add the link to your Canvas site. Use the permalink to add the URL to the appropriate section of your Canvas site.
    1. Module Level
      1. From an existing module, click the "+" button
      2. Add "External URL"
      3. Paste in the permalink of the article
      4. Select "Load in New Tab"
      5. Click "Add Item"
    2. Page Level
      1. From an existing module, click the "+" button
      2. Add "Content Page"
      3. Select"[New Page]" and fill out the "Page Name"
      4. Click "Add Item"
      5. Once the page is set up, click on the page, then click on "Edit"
      6. Paste in the title of the article, click the "Link to URL" icon, paste in the permalink, then click "Update Link"
      7. Click "Save"
  4. Test your link. Open your Canvas page in a new browser or different computer, and click your new link. If it gets you to the same place--great!  If not, look around for the permalink.