Paul Joseph
Systems Librarian
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) Library, in partnership with UBC’s Information Technology Services and Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, has implemented a collaborative campus-wide course reserves service solely in the context of Blackboard, integrating with several key campus systems. The service is currently managed using the Ares application by Atlas Systems, and receives course and enrollment data in real-time via an enterprise message bus and restricts access to reserves in all courses and sections based on enrollment. This presentation will begin with background on the teaching and learning context at UBC: changes to the university’s copyright environment, the decision to implement Blackboard, and the need for UBC Library to provide an electronic course reserves service. It will then touch on the decision to select Ares as a starting point and to provide access to it solely in the context of Blackboard. The session will then focus on the implementation of the system, focusing on utilization of the Summon API to search the Library’s print and electronic collections for materials in support of a course. The API results are used to populate fields in the existing Ares reserves request forms, which greatly reduces manual data entry. The API is also used to store persistent and EZproxied Summon URLs, rather than those supplied by publishers and vendors, which ensures more stable access to the Library’s e-resources. The presentation will end with a demonstration of the service, providing details on the integration of the different systems as well as insights into the development process, challenges, complexities and concomitant benefits.