Email our friendly Librarians for further advice or to book an appointment: staffsupport-lib@uwa.edu.au
Unit Coordinators must notify the Library of essential textbooks via Unit Readings.
An essential textbook is defined at UWA as follows:
“An essential textbook forms a core component of the unit, is integrated into the learning, used frequently for the duration of the unit, and linked to assessments”
It is recommended that students purchase essential textbooks for convenience due to the frequency with which they will be required to interact with the content. A limited number of print copies or licenses of e-textbooks will be made available via the Library.
Note: It is recommended to select essential textbooks that can be made available online by UWA Library. The Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA) stipulates that a textbook can only be required for a unit of study if the text is readily available free of charge through the university library. For advice on selecting ebooks, please contact a Librarian.
To notify the Library, and your students, of an essential textbook:
When your list is complete, click Send list to Library to notify the Library the list is ready to process.
Items with the Essential textbook tag will appear in your Unit Outline, will be listed on the UWA Essential TextBooks page for students and be placed in the Library’s High Demand collection. Once the reading list is processed by the Library, the 'Essential textbook' tag in Unit Readings is visible to students accessing the list.
Other high-use readings in your list, which you would like the Library to place in the High Demand section, can be tagged High Demand. It is not necessary to use both tags on one reading.
Items in the Library's High Demand collection are available for 3hr loans (or overnight if loaned after 4:30pm), giving students more equitable access to high-use resources that are available in print/physical format.
If an item in Unit Readings is tagged with High Demand, upon receiving your reading list, the Library will:
To tag a reading in your list:
The High Demand tag will now appear under the details of the reading.
Please place textbook orders 6 weeks prior to semester to allow time for orders to be processed. To notify the Library that you require an e-textbook to be purchased, follow these steps:
When you press Send on your list, the Library will purchase the item for your unit, if available.
First, search for the item in OneSearch. If it is not already owned by the library:
When you press Send on your list, the Library will purchase the item for your unit, if available. Where possible an ebook copy will be ordered. The number of copies ordered will be based on the number of students enrolled in the unit.
Note: Please place textbook orders 6 weeks prior to semester if possible. Recommendations for resources such as books or audiovisual material can also be submitted via the Order Details form
To add websites and open textbooks to your list:
Another option to add online readings to your list is the Cite It! bookmarklet. Once added to your internet browser bookmarks, Cite It allows you to easily save websites into your reading lists. See instructions to install and use Cite It!
Under copyright law, 1 chapter or 10% of an item can be digitised and added to Unit Readings.
Please do not send or attach a scanned document. The Library will create a copy that is accessible and complies with copyright requirements.
To request the Library scan (ie digitise) a book chapter or a journal article, first add the item to your reading list by clicking on the + Add button. See the Add Item from OneSearch instructions or Add a New Item to be Purchased instructions for more information.
Then add the Digitise tag to your item:
The Digitise tag will appear on the reading.
If adding a book chapter, please also change the item type to Book Chapter. Add the chapter title and chapter number or page numbers.
While processing lists, Library staff will ensure all ebooks in Unit Readings include a link that opens the ebook. Optionally, for individual ebook chapters, Unit Coordinators can add a second link, direct to the chapter. It depends on the eBook supplier as to whether links direct to the chapter are available, and how to locate them. If direct chapter linking is not available, include a Public note to advise students which pages they need to read, assisting students in navigating to the chapter.
To add an ebook chapter to Unit Readings:
For example, in eBook Central, after clicking on a chapter from the contents on the left, a direct link to the chapter is available from the chain link symbol in the menu above the chapter.
The library can purchase Kanopy videos at the request of unit coordinators. If you'd like to use a Kanopy video in your unit simply add it to your reading list in Unit Readings and click Send List to Library to submit the list to the library for processing.
Subscription access to Kanopy videos must be renewed annually. Send your reading list to the library each time your unit is run to ensure Kanopy videos are renewed and available to your students for another 12 months.
To move an item from one section to another:
Or, drag items by hovering the mouse cursor on the left-hand side of a reading, then click and hold down the mouse button, and drag the reading to any section of the list.
You can change the order of Sections with the same "drag and drop" method.
To delete an item on your Unit Reading list, click on the ellipsis ('..') on the top right-hand corner of that item. Select 'Delete item' from the menu.
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