Your course syllabus is an excellent place to tell students about the research assistance offered by librarians - here is a short blurb you can insert to bring library services to your students' attention (*Note that this blurb created for academic year 2023 reflects temporary floor arrangements while the library is under construction*): 

Hekman Library 

When you need research help or have a library question, the Hekman Library team can help you in a few ways: 

• Make a research appointment in advance with your liaison librarian

• Come to the 4th floor Research Desk during the library's open hours for walk-up help 

• Use the LiveChat pop-up on the library website to instant message a librarian 24/7 

All Moodle course sites have access to a Library Resources block inside the "Course Blocks" drawer.  This block automatically loads links to core research databases based on the subject code of the course.  For example, the ENGL-101 Moodle course will see English and writing databases, while the BIOL-123 course will see Biology databases.  The research guide for the subject is included, and links for the library catalog, library website, and quick methods of getting research help (such as chat, email and text) are also available in the block.

More Specific Linking Instructions

Articles in Research Databases

The best way to make an article available to your students is to link directly to the article in one of our licensed databases. Although downloading PDF articles from a research database for your own scholarly use is acceptable, licensing terms often restrict using those same PDFs on learning platforms such as Moodle or Canvas.

To do this, be sure to find the article's permanent (also known as durable or persistent) URL, as noted in the database's article record; copying the URL from the address bar may result in a session-specific link which won't work later for your students. In addition, to ensure that students off campus can access the article, the following string must be included before the persistent link:

https://lib-proxy.calvin.edu/login?url=[insert the permanent URL, including https://, here with no space after the "="]

Online Books

Search for the book title in the library catalog. If an online version is available, there will be a link in the record.

Note: if you are not sure if a licensed version of an article or online book is available through Hekman, contact your liaison librarian for assistance.