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EBooks and Blackboard ( How to Create a Link)

ebrary is an electronic collection of more than 30,000 academic books, spanning all subject areas. It is the largest and most comprehensive of the book collections to which NYU has licensed access. All titles included in the ebrary collection are cataloged in Bobcat.

It is possible to link directly to ebrary content from your Blackboard course site. The Bobcat record for each ebrary title contains a link that can be easily pasted into Blackboard. Alternately, it is also possible to capture a link to a specific chapter, from within ebrary. This page includes instructions for both methods.


Linking to ebrary content: Books

The best way to link to an entire book is to find its record in Bobcat and copy the persistent URL. You can then paste the URL into your Blackboard page, as an external link.

  • 1. Locate the Bobcat record for the ebook you would like to link to.

    Search Bobcat , the library's online catalog, for your book. You can do a phrase search, by title or author, or conduct a keyword search, to combine more than one search term. If the library has a print copy, as well as an electronic copy of your book, you may see multiple entries in the catalog. The ebrary version will be designated as an "electronic resource" in brackets.

    • ebook


    2. Open the Bobcat record to capture the URL.

    Click through to the full Bobcat record and scroll down to the bottom, where you will see a pink box with the heading "Resource," that contains a URL. Please note: URLs that begin with http://www.loc.gov are links to tables of contents only, not to electronic books.

  • fellini_link1

  • 3. Copy the URL from Bobcat and paste it into Blackboard.

    If you are using a PC, you can right click on the URL and then select the option to "copy link location." If you are using a Mac, you can do this by pressing the CTRL button while clicking the mouse over the URL. Next, open your Blackboard course site and navigate to the page where you would like to paste the link. Make sure you are in the edit view and select the option to add an "external link" from the menu bar at the top of the page.

  • ext_link

    •  

    Paste the ebrary link into the URL field and add any desired instructions, comments, and settings, before scrolling down to click "submit."

     

    bb_paste_url

Linking to ebrary content: Chapters

If you are linking to a specific chapter of an ebook, you can generate a link from within ebrary. It is not necessary to enter Bobcat at all.

  • 1. Enter ebrary through the library's website.

    From the library's homepage (library.nyu.edu), follow the link to Articles via Databases. On the right, under popular databases, there is a link to ebrary. Follow that link to enter the site.

  • pop_dbs
Now do a simple title or author search for your book.
  • ebrary_search

  • 2. Navigate to the first page of the chapter you want to link to in Blackboard.

  • From the Table of Contents window, you can navigate to the first page of the chapter of interest.

  • chapter_list
  • Once you are on your desired page, you can right click (or CTRL + click, with a mac) and then select the option to "copy bookmark."
  • copy_bookmark

  • Paste the bookmark link into Blackboard.

    Open your Blackboard course site and navigate to the page where you would like to paste the link. Make sure you are in the edit view and select the option to add an "external link."

  • ext_link

  • Next, paste the ebrary link into the URL field, but don't submit yet. It is necessary to add this EZProxy prefix to the beginning of the link:

  • https://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=

  • After you paste in the ebrary link, move your cursor to the beginning and type in the ezproxy URL. This allows your students to access the ebrary content from on or off-campus.
  • ezproxy
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