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What is a Library Research Guide?

Learn about Library Research Guides (sometimes referred to as "LibGuides") and how they can be helpful to you and your students!

How to Add a Library Research Guide to Your Brightspace Course

Library Research Guides have been integrated with Brightspace making them easy to include in your course content! To add a Library Research Guide to your Brightspace Course, follow the steps below. You can find instructions with screenshots farther down the page. 


Step 1

From the module you want to add the guide to, choose "External Learning Tools" from the "Existing Activities" drop-down menu. 

Step 2

Then, select "PWL - Library Research Guides".

Step 3

Once the tool has been added to your module, click on the link.

Step 4

From here, you'll be able to select the Content Type you're interested.

Note: In most cases, you'll want to select "Full LibGuide" as this will give students access to all the content on the guide. If you're wanting to highlight a specific page of the guide, the "Single Page" option can be used. 

Step 5

Next, you'll need to choose the guide you want to have linked to the course from the "Guide" drop-down. This can be a course guide, a subject guide, or maybe a tutorial guide. The Getting to Know Purdue Libraries guide can be a great option for first-year courses.

Step 6

Finally, click "Embed Content". 

Success! 

If everything worked correctly, you should receive a message that the LTI tool has been saved.

 

How to Add a Library Research Guide to Your Brightspace Course (with screenshots)

screenshot with module labeled 1, drop-down labeled 2, and external learning tools labeled 3

Step 1

From the module you want to add the guide to, choose "External Learning Tools" from the "Existing Activities" drop-down menu. 

screenshot with Library Research Guides link labeled 4

Step 2

Then, select "PWL - Library Research Guides".

screenshot with Library Research Guides module link labeled 5

Step 3

Once the tool has been added to your module, click on the link that was created. It should say "PWL - Library Research Guides."

screenshot with Full LibGuide in Content Type drop-down labeled 6

Step 4

From here, you'll be able to select the Content Type you're interested.

Note: In most cases, you'll want to select "Full LibGuide" as this will give students access to all the content on the guide. If you're wanting to highlight a specific page of the guide, the "Single Page" option can be used. 

screenshot with Getting to Know Purdue Libraries in Guide Page drop-down labeled 7

Step 5

Next, you'll need to choose the guide you want to have linked to the course from the "Guide" drop-down.

This can be a course guide, a subject guide, or maybe a tutorial guide. The Getting to Know Purdue Libraries guide can be a great option for first-year courses.

screenshot with Embed Content button labeled 8

Step 6

Finally, click "Embed Content". 

screenshot of success message - "success! The content selection for your LTI tool has been saved."

Success!

If everything worked correctly, you should receive a message that the LTI tool has been saved.

LTI Tool vs. Link

How does this differ from adding a Research Guide as a link?

  • If you add a guide to your course as a link, you have to have the URL to be able to add the guide.
  • If you add a guide to your course using the Brightspace integration (LTI tool), you can search for the guide by name from the collection without knowing the URL. 

How you add a guide to your course is up to you so choose an option that works best for you and your students.