Creating a Link to Content

Creating a Link to Content 

This step-by-step guide will explain the process of creating a link using the DCS.  The link can then be shared via email, added to a reading list, or pasted onto your VLE. To find out more about how to share and manage your links, click insert link to ‘Links’ article here.  

This article will cover the following steps: 
Searching for your Content 
Verifying Licence Compliance and Ownership 
Assign to a Course  
Extent Limits  
Source Content  
Searching the Repository – Journal/Serial Articles  
Searching the Repository – Book Chapters/Extracts  
Assignees 
Final Steps  
 
Searching for your Content 

The Search function enables you to search for the content you need. You can either use the quick “Search” box on your dashboard or navigate to “Search and Discover” via the left-hand navigation menu. The DCS allows you to search for both books and articles. You can search using the ISBN/ISSN, Title, Publisher, and/or Author. When searching for a book, the system will search the DCS Bibliographic database.   
 

Once you have searched for your content, select the correct title from the list that has been generated. When you have clicked on the title you are looking for, the DCS will tell you whether it is covered by the CLA Licence. You can then enter the page range you want to use, e.g., 1-27, and click ‘Create Content Request.’ 
 

This will take you to the content request page. 

Verifying Licence Compliance and Ownership 

In this example, you can see that the CLA licence covers the content that the user would like to create a link to. Since the system is integrated with the user’s LMS, it has verified that they own a copy. To find out more about Licence Compliance Verification, click Insert link to Licence Compliance Verification.    In some circumstances, the DCS provides the option to enter an expiry date.  This option will appear if CLA does not cover the content and your rights to the content have an expiry date, such as when you have a direct agreement with the publisher, or it was purchased via the second extract permission service.

Assign to a Course  
The next step is to assign the content to a course. Your course information may already be in the system, for example, through a bulk upload or manual entry. If it is not in the system, you have the option to ‘add a new course.’ To find out more about uploading courses, click insert link to ‘Adding Courses.’

 

Extent Limits  
The DCS will calculate whether the content request is compliant with the CLA Licence. To read more about extent limits, click insert link to Extent Limits
 
 
 
Source Content  
Once the content is assigned to a course, you will then need to select the source for the content. If we do not have publisher-supplied content available for this title, and no other HEI has scanned this same piece of content, you will need to upload a scan yourself. hyperlink insert to Uploading your own scan.    CLA advises HEIs to always preview scans, including publisher-supplied titles, to ensure that the pages are correct and that the information and quality are sufficient for your use.  

  
When you upload your own scan, it will appear temporarily in a ‘pending items’ table above the main table for HEI-supplied items. Once it has been indexed and added to our content repository, it will move to the main table (note: you can select to use your file from either table. You will still be able to select and use your content when it is in the “pending” table). If you have not yet scanned the piece of content that you need, you can save the request and come back to it in the ‘Requests in Progress’ page. To find out more about ‘In Progress’ requests.

 If your content request exceeds the extent limit, it won’t be possible to publish a link. In such an instance, you can reduce the amount of material to ensure your request remains within the extent limits by amending the page range. Alternatively, you may be able to purchase a Second Extract Permissions, which would allow you to use up to a further 10%. 

You can reuse the ‘Add Document’ function to upload a new scan with a reduced range of pages.  

Searching the repository – Journal / Serial Articles  
The DCS has access to metadata for over one hundred million articles.  This means when searching for a journal or serial article, usually you will be able to select the precise article you require (and the system will provide the page numbers).  In the content request, the Source Content area will show all the files the DCS has access to that relate to that specific article’s metadata.  

Files will be listed under the type of source the document is, i.e., Publisher Supplied or HEI Supplied.      
 
Searching the Repository – Book Chapters/ Extracts  
For a book chapter or extracts, the DCS will present all results from that book (with matching ISBN) under Source Content. If we have Publisher-supplied content, the available pages will be shown in the first table.  HEI supplied items that include your requested page range will be in the table beneath the heading.  You will be able to expand this section: ‘View other page ranges for this title’ below to see any other page ranges available for the title.  

 
NOTE: Extracts must be selected from the list based on pedagogic need and not availability. These results are all displayed to help identify what has been requested if a correct page range has not been supplied. Suggesting to an academic that another chapter could be used because it is available in the DCS would be against the spirit of the Licence. 

Assignees
You can reassign the Assignee from within the request if a colleague should now work on the request (or you can reassign it to yourself if you should now be working on the request). Please note that if you reassign the Assignee more than once, the HEI Report will only be able to report on the original Assignee and the current Assignee, not those in between. The Original Assignee is the one who clicks ‘Assign to me’ in an academic request or clicks ‘Create a Content Request’ after finding or adding the bibliographic data in a manual request. 

To select another Assignee, simply select them from the dropdown at the top of your screen.  There’s no need to save or add anything else.  

Final Steps 
Once you have completed each stage of the content request, you can complete the request by clicking the ‘Generate Link’ button that you can see in the image below.  

 

Once a link has been generated, you are able to copy and paste it into emails, onto the VLE, and onto Reading List Management Lists; the copy link icon will help you easily copy the link, which you can paste where required. 

Note: If any of the licence requirements (permission, ownership, extents) have not been completed, the system will ask you to complete them before you can publish the link.