The Kelly Library’s Syllabus Service assists faculty and instructors with the creation of an electronic reading list for your Quercus page to make your readings and other course materials available to students.
How it Works
Drawing on the University of Toronto’s extensive digital holdings (and beyond!), our team will prepare a complete reading list in your course’s Quercus page which contains links to weekly readings and other materials. If an item is not available electronically, our Syllabus Service team will retrieve, scan, and upload resources as PDF files, all in adherence to the University of Toronto’s Copyright Fair Dealing Guidelines. If required readings go beyond the Guidelines, we will request the necessary transactional licenses. We will reach out to you if we are unable to source an item.
Using Quercus to hold all of your electronic course material provides your students with easy access to articles, ebooks, chapters/excerpts, web links, and other media resources all in one place. We can also provide material to you to upload on your own. Our team can email you links to digitally-accessible materials, PDF files of scanned journal articles or book chapters, and other materials which you can post to Quercus yourself.
Course Reserves
Our Syllabus Service team can place frequently used materials on course reserve. Course reserve sets items aside in the library under shorter loan periods which allows for increased access. This is commonly done for print materials or DVDs which are not available digitally or for supplementary course materials. Let us know if there are any materials you wish to have placed on course reserve.
What is Leganto?
You may have been hearing about Leganto, a new reading list management tool that is launching across the UofT this fall. Integrated entirely within Quercus, Leganto is a collaborative tool that links your Quercus page and LibrarySearch, the UofT’s library catalogue, to allow both instructors and students an easy way to directly access library (and beyond) resources entirely within your Quercus course page. The Kelly Library’s Syllabus Service team is excited to facilitate the use of this new tool and all syllabi will be created in your Quercus page using Leganto. Gone are the days of awkward—and often broken—links to articles! Leganto will manage physical and electronic materials making them easier for students to access.
How to submit your request(s)
Submit your syllabus with full citations by email to the Kelly Library Syllabus Service Team. Your document should be either a PDF or a Microsoft Word file. In your submission, please include:
- Course name and code
- Your name and contact information
- Course start and end dates
- Number of students enrolled in your course
Please let us know if you have print access to any of the items on your reading list. Sometimes instructors use their own personal copy of a resource or have a library copy in their possession. In such cases, the Syllabus Service team may reach out to borrow these materials.
Submission deadlines
To ensure we have sufficient time to source materials for your class, please aim to have your syllabi submitted by the following dates:
- Friday, December 6, 2024 for Winter 2025 “S” courses
- Friday, April 18, 2025 for Summer 2025 “Y” and “F” courses
- Friday, June 13, 2024 for Summer 2025 “S” courses
Returning instructors
Please let us know if your course has used our syllabus service before. We save information from past courses, allowing us to fulfill your request more quickly. Please submit a revised copy of your syllabus and we will make any changes necessary.
Copyright
Our team will contact you if we notice any copyright issues in your syllabus or if, for any reason, a resource cannot be made available. In order to provide materials as quickly as possible, we will negotiate copyright clearance for items that exceed our current licences and guidelines.
Privacy
All data collected from course outlines submitted to the Kelly Library’s Syllabus Service program is used for the purposes of improving the services offered by the Kelly Library and may be used for collection development, program development, and other user services. Access to all submitted information is limited to staff of the John M. Kelly Library. Information will not be shared with third parties.
Contact
Please reach out to our Syllabus Service team at kelly.syllabus@utoronto.ca if you have any questions or concerns.