University of Alberta Library Home > Reserve Course Materials

Reserve Course Materials
Talis Aspire

The University of Alberta Library uses Talis Aspire as the platform for Course Materials. Use these instructions to reserve a textbook for Course Materials (short-term loan), request the purchase of an item if not in our holdings, and request digitization of a chapter.

If you experience any difficulty, send us an email at coursemat@ualberta.ca with a link to the list created and the information for the item you would like to add. If you wish to create a more extensive list, including articles, please check out our Reading Lists page.

Instructions for Reserving Course Materials
(short-term loan)

  • 1. Create a simple reading list, use your course title (i.e. ANTHR 208) as the list name and select the term - this links your textbook with your course.
  • 2. Use the Add Resource button to locate the title of your textbook (if not available, please add it manually).
  • 3. Click the Review & Publish button.
  • 4. Your textbook will be added to Course Materials as soon as it is available.

The Library's Textbook Initiative

To reduce the cost burden for students, the Library lends out copies of many textbooks stocked by the Bookstore. This effort is known as our Textbook Initiative. The Bookstore supplies us with lists of assigned textbooks before the start of each term. Using these lists, we work to purchase as many textbooks as we can. The following parameters guide how many copies of each textbook we will purchase.

  • We acquire only textbooks that are both priced over $50 and required (ie., not just recommended).
  • If we can purchase an ebook version of a textbook, we do so.
  • If no ebook is available, we buy print copies. For courses with up to 125 students, we buy one (1) copy. For courses with more than 125 students, we will buy up to five (5) copies in total.
  • Print textbooks are located in the corresponding library's Course Materials collection. For example, social sciences and humanities textbooks are kept in the Rutherford Course Materials room; science, engineering, and business textbooks are kept in the Cameron Course Materials room. Textbooks for Augustana and Campus Saint-Jean courses are kept in the Course Materials collections in those libraries.
  • Print textbooks can generally be borrowed for two hours at a time.

Other Resources for Instructors

Library staff can help you identify library materials, or alternative sources of course material that is both online, and no-cost or low-cost to students.

Alternatives to print textbooks include:

  • Open Educational Resources: we can search for open online textbooks, and provide you with a list of high quality options that are free to use and share.
  • Ebooks and other online resources that are already in our collection: including ebooks, reference sources and articles in online databases. Most of these have no limits on the number of users that can access them.
  • Purchase materials on demand: if we do not currently own an ebook version, we can investigate purchasing titles for our collection.
Consult with your subject Librarian

Librarians can advise about assigning online library resources, such as ebooks, articles, and streaming film and music.