George Brown Polytechnic is located on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and other Indigenous peoples who have lived here over time. We are grateful to share this land as treaty people who learn, work and live in the community with each other.
Library Resources Are Affordable Resources
The library has millions of resources available for you to use for free in your classroom. You can access articles, books, videos, reports and more from the library website.
Looking to replace your textbook?
Textbook prices have surged, creating a significant financial burden for students. In addition, faculty are being encouraged to use no-cost resources. Library resources can often be used as an alternative to traditional textbooks in the classroom. And the best part? They’re already available, and free to students!
Can the Library Purchase My e-Textbook?
Most major textbook publishers such as Pearson and Cengage do not sell e-textbooks to libraries. These publishers require each student to purchase the print or e-textbook for use in the course.
However, there are many other resources, including e-textbooks, the library can provide. Our e-books and e-textbooks are available at no cost to students, and most* are available to an unlimited number of users at once – meaning every student in your class can access a book at the same time. See below for more information.
Textbooks Required for Certification/Accreditation
For courses where certification standards require students to use a specific textbook from one of the mainstream publishers, the students would be required to purchase their own copy of the textbook. These e-textbooks would not generally be available to the library for purchase.
If the textbook is required for accreditation (skills and knowledge for designation exams), it would be a mandatory text and students would simply have to be advised of the cost in advance, in alignment with the Ministry mandate.
Using eTextbooks & eTextbooks from the Library
The GBC library has 359,000 + eBooks available to all GBC students at no cost, most of which can be accessed by an unlimited number of users at once.* Many of our eBooks are produced by academic publishers such as McGraw-Hill, O’Reilly, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, Routledge, Wiley, and more. This means they have been written, reviewed, and edited by experts.
Did you know that library resources are:
- No-cost for students: Licensed and paid for through the library; institution-wide access is provided at no cost to students.
- Subject-specific: Provide industry-focused resources suitable to upper-level courses for which open educational resources are often unavailable.
- Reviewed: Have gone through the editorial processes and quality control of an established publishing house.
- Copyright cleared: Cleared for classroom use.
- Accessible via Brightspace: Easy integration into Brightspace courses using the Reading List Builder tool.
What about OER?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are free, openly licensed teaching and learning materials that can often be used, adapted, and shared without cost or legal barriers (some restrictions do apply). They range from full textbooks and course modules to videos, quizzes, and software, and are often created and peer-reviewed by educators for use in postsecondary classrooms. OER offer a flexible, affordable alternative to traditional course materials and can be customized to fit your specific course needs. Your Liaison Librarian can help you explore OER options for your teaching.
While OER can be a great fit for many courses, they are not available for every subject or at every level of depth. In some cases, they may lack the currency, rigor, or comprehensiveness required for advanced or highly specialized topics. Library-licensed resources, such as ebooks, databases, and streaming media, offer another cost-free option for students and often provide access to high-quality, peer-reviewed academic content. Your librarian can help you weigh the options and choose what’s best for your course.
Library Resources vs. OER
Library Resources
- Free to GBC users, paid for by the library
- Often produced by established publishers
- High-quality from established publishers
- Broad coverage across disciplines
- Have copyright/usage restrictions
- Restrictions on concurrent users, copying and sharing
- Cannot be edited or adapted
Open Educational Resources
- Free for everyone, open access
- Often created by educators or institutions
- Quality varies
- Some disciplines may have limited OER options
- Free of most copyright/usage restrictions
- Open access, free copying and sharing
- Can often be edited, adapted, remixed, or customized
Information to help you understand Canada’s copyright law.
Open Educational Resources for faculty and library staff in Ontario colleges.
Details on how to request items from other Ontario College Libraries.
Other Helpful Resources
Accessible Course Content
George Brown Polytechnic is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive environment for all students. When adding course content, please refer to the following linked resources for policies and guidelines on accessible media, information and communication:
Course Reserves
Add Print Textbooks and Articles to Course Reserves
The Library Learning Commons offers course reserves so that high-demand materials are available on a fair and equitable basis to all students. The use of the reserve must not substitute for the purchase of books, course packs, or other published materials.
What Can I Put on Reserve?
- Books and periodical material owned by either you or the library.
- Photocopies of supplementary readings. (As opposed to required readings, supplementary readings are considered to be optional.) If you copied from works under copyright the material must be:
- copied within the limits described in the Fair Dealing Policy (Appendix #1 of the copyright policy), or
- copied with the permission of the copyright holder if the amount copied is outside the limits of the (see the Copyright Services webpage for information on getting permissions)
- copied within the limits described in the Fair Dealing Policy (Appendix #1 of the copyright policy), or
- Material that is instructor-created (such as class notes that the instructor or GBC owns the copyright).
Note: You can link to most articles in the library databases using persistent links. These can be included on D2L BrightSpace. You can contact your program librarian if you need assistance. You can link to required and supplementary readings. Linking is not an infringement of copyright and gives students more equitable access to articles than putting them on reserve.
What Can't I Put on Reserve?
- Photocopies of required readings
- Advanced copies of pre-published works
- Course packs
- Custom publications
- Workbooks, assignment sheets, tests, examination papers, or instruction manuals under copyright to a publisher or other copyright holder
- Newsletters to which you have a personal subscription
- Purchased business cases such as Harvard or Ivey case studies
- Unpublished works such as handouts from a conference
How do I Place an Item on Reserve?
Use the New Reading List Builder in BrightSpace to put an item on Reserve.
If the item is a print book in the library collection, add it to your reading list using the Library Search option. You will be prompted to request that the book be placed on Reserve at that time.
Choose the location you would like the item to be made available at. If you have any questions, use the Message the Library option within the New Reading List Builder or contact your program/liaison librarian.
How Much Can I Put on Reserve?
- 2 copies of each book title. The Library reserves the right to limit the number of books to five per course for space reasons.
- 1 copy of each periodical.
Photocopies:
- 1 per every 30 students.
- Photocopies of supplementary or optional readings must NOT be greater than 10 percent of the total of your required readings for the course in order to follow the George Brown Polytechnic Copyright Guidelines, or permission from the copyright holder must be requested.
The first page of each photocopy must state:
- The author’s name (if known)
- The title of the publication from which the photocopy was made
- The name of the publisher
How Long Will Materials be Kept on Reserve?
- Material will be kept on reserve for one semester only. A new request must be made each semester.
- All instructor-owned material can be picked up three months after the semester ends.
- The Library cannot return photocopies. Under the Fair Dealing Policy the library must destroy all photocopies at the end of each semester.
Note: As of January 1, 2011, our course reserves procedures for photocopies have been revised to be compliant with the George Brown Polytechnic Fair Dealing Policy adopted under the advice of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC). Under the fair dealing exception in the Canadian Copyright Act users of material under copyright can copy material for the purpose of research or private study as long as the dealing is fair. Copying limitations you see here have been determined by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges as being fair. See the Copyright Services webpage for more information.
Creating Persistent Links to Library Resources
Permanent links to electronic articles, books, and videos available in the Library’s databases can be added to course outlines as an alternative to print materials on Course Reserve. Find instructions for creating links to most major databases below, or contact your program librarian for more instructions. The URL in your web browser will not provide a permanent or reliable access point.
Page 1+ (main library homepage search box): Select the chain icon next to the title in the search results. Or click the title to open the full record and find the Permalink icon in the “Send to” section.
Proquest: Click on the item title, then “All Options” at the top right. You will find the permanent link at the top of the new window.
Science Direct: Use the link in the browser address bar.
Ovid: Open the article PDF or full-text, then select "Email Jumpstart" at the top of the screen to get the permanent link.
Kanopy & Films on Demand: Use the link in the browser address bar.
LinkedIn Learning: Use the link in the browser address bar. When accessing the link from off-campus for the first time, sign in with your George Brown email and then select George Brown Polytechnic SAML-2 account.
Nexis Uni: Click on the article title, then select “Export Citation”. You will find the persistent link at the end of the citation.
Recommend Items for the Collection
The Library welcomes suggestions for books, journals, magazines, audio-visual materials, and databases for addition to the library collection. Faculty members are encouraged to contact their program Librarian.
Purchasing is subject to funding and the parameters of the Collections Development Policy, which specifies that the Library Learning Commons develops collections of print, audio-visual, and electronic resources to support student inquiry and faculty teaching related to the academic program in support of a college credential.