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George Mason University Infoguides | University Libraries
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Leganto - Course Reserves

Instruction and guidance for Faculty and Staff for using Leganto in Blackboard to manage their e-reserves

Methods for Adding Items

Adding University Libraries' Content

  • Add items from the library electronic holdings and subscriptions for immediate direct acess 
  • Requests for physical books to be held for Course Reserves at your campus' library
  • Add citations for physical print materials for digitization (within the bounds of Copyright)

Upload Files and Manual Entry of a Source

  • Upload items you have created and to which you fully own or retain the relevant Copyright privileges
  • Add citation information only for materials you'd like students to purchase, like course texts
  • Add information for materials that you would like the Library to potentially acquire (as resources allow)

Using the Leganto Cite It! Bookmarklet Tool from open Online Sources and Materials

  • Install a bookmarklet from ExLibris to add citations while you browse the wider web
  • The Cite It! Bookmarklet works with many online resources to more easily incorporate content into your Courses

First Time Adding Content

When you first begin adding content into Course Reserves (Leganto) into a given Course, you may see the following...

This page gives you several options.  If you are new to using Leganto, Creating a New Reading List from Scratch will be the most appropriate choice.

If you have used Leganto before, and have exported a previous reading list, you can immediately upload it with a minimum of fuss!

Make a List

The first primary step for creating a set of readings and other content for your class is... to make a List!

Making a list is straightforward, with the New List button as seen below.

New List

Once you have created a List, you will need to give your List a name.

Once you have named your List, you will need to choose a Template.  The Blank Template is the standard.  Other Templates can be chosen, such as a Weekly or Resource Type template.

After choosing a Template, you will be prompted to associate the List with a particular course.  It is not required, and can be done at a later time if you wish.

New Section Leganto

The last step is to make a Section in your List.  This can be anything from a weekly delineation of readings and materials, or just the whole set of content for a given class.  No organizational method is universally perfect, so go whatever works for you and your course. 

New Section Details

A new Section can be set to be available for specific time frames, or have a previously saved set of content Imported.

Now that you have created a fully functional and armed List, let's add some content!

Adding University Libraries Content

Adding content from the University Libraries is the one of the easier and more direct way to add electronically accessible content to your list for your students.

First, click Add Items + and then use the search feature that will appear on the right to search for the desired item.

This method is best for things like articles from our various databases, e-books and e-book chapters, and other content available online

This method utilizes a version of our main library search found at https://library.gmu.edu to locate materials.  If you can find it there, you can add it to your course!

Once you locate a desired item, whether electronically accessible or not, you can click-and-drag the item from the search area on the right into the central area to add it to your list or click on the desired item and look for the blue Add button.

Uploading Files and Manual Entry of a Source

Some items may not be available online through the University Libraries, may be from outside open sources (Youtube for example), or some other situation or circumstance.

In these cases, you may need to create an Item manually as seen below.

Create Entry Leganto

If you are adding a PDF file for a source that is NOT part of our online access subscriptions, we do ask for as complete and detailed an entry be included.  This is to ensure all necessary Copyright conventions are followed.

Adding links to outside and publicly accessible platforms, such as Youtube, is often a matter of obtaining the relevant persistent URL or web address and including it in the appropriate field in the Create form.

Using the Cite It! Bookmarklet Tool for Online Sources and Materials

The Cite It! Bookmarklet is an option that can allow you to grab items through more natural browsing of online resources and the like.

The Bookmarklet does not work in all websites, but does work on a wide range of sites from many familiar providers.

The image below will show you how to acquire the Cite It! Bookmarklet from within the Blackboard Course Reserves - Leganto page.

Cite It!

For a more robust demonstration of Cite It!, please watch the video HERE to see the tool in action, as demonstrated by the vendor behind it all.