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FAQ

How do I create an account?

Simply fill out the form provided, and you will have instant access to our site.  All faculty and instructors employed to teach courses by Canadian post-secondary institutions qualify for ongoing site access. When you create an account, please use your institutional email address to allow us to verify your account.


How do I preview the books you offer?

Once you have created your free user account, you can view full-text previews of all chapters on the site. Every chapter has been tagged, using a subject list of more than 600 terms reflecting issues and topics within the social sciences and humanities. Using these tags, you may find relevant content in multiple books. You can also search by title and author, of course. There are also brief descriptions of the content of every chapter to help you decide if the content is likely to be relevant to your needs.

You can then read the full text of the chapter by clicking on the “Preview” button. You can read as much as you want, and as many chapters of as many books as you wish.


How do I create a collection for my course?

When you find chapters that meet your needs, you can click “add” to add them to your collection. At any time, you can click and drag items in your collection to modify the sequence of the chapters. You’ll also see the per-copy cost of the chapters as you add them.

We save your collection on our platform, and email you with the identifier unique to your collection. Be sure to add our email address ([email protected]) so our email doesn’t end up in a junk folder.

Once you’ve done that, your collection is ready to be ordered by your campus copyright office or your campus bookstore.


What if I want to use the entire text of a book for course use?

Most of the books you find on our site are available in digital format from the Campus eBookstore. In those cases, the Campus eBookstore logo appears on a book’s description page. If you click on the logo, you will go directly to that book’s page on the Campus eBookstore site. 

All the books on this site are available in print format from the publisher.


How do my students access my course collection?

You have three options:

Option 1: Students purchase a digital copy from your campus bookstore.

 If your institution’s bookstore is partnered with Campus eBookstore, the bookstore can order your collection the same way they would order any other digital text. The campus store will find your collection in the list of titles available from their digital textbook supplier, Campus eBookstore. 

Your campus store uses your collection’s unique identification number (equivalent to a book’s ISBN) or your course name and number to find your collection on Campus eBookstore. They add it to their store inventory, and make it available to students to purchase. 

Students can purchase the collection from the bookstore’s website or purchase an access card from the bookstore and redeem it online, as they would with any other Campus eBookstore title. The collections are delivered as PDF-format ebooks and can be accessed with Campus eBookstore’s free e-reader (currently Adobe Digital Editions).

Option 2: Your campus copyright office obtains the file for you, direct from us, to supply it to students on your course management system.

If your institution makes course readings available to students by arranging to obtain them and paying any associated copyright permissions, when you pass along your order for your collection to your campus bookstore, the store will forward the order to your copyright office. The copyright office contacts us directly. We send the digital file to them, for uploading on the digital platform your institution uses for course readings. We invoice the copyright office for the number of copies required for your course, and are paid directly by them.

Option 3: Your campus bookstore orders print copies of your collection. 

If you or your students wish to have your collection in print format, your campus bookstore can order print copies from us, just as they would order print copies of any book chosen for course use. We will produce and deliver these copies to the bookstore for resale to students. Your campus bookstore can also arrange with us to receive the digital PDF file of your collection for production locally at your institution’s print shop. We can also provide printed and bound copies of your collection, if your institution prefers this, at an additional cost of 3-5 cents per page.


How do I know if my bookstore uses the Campus eBookstore platform?

Campus eBookstore is partnered with all independently operated university bookstores in Canada. If your campus bookstore is not managed by Follett, a US company which has taken over management of some Canadian campus stores, you have access to Campus eBookstore’s platform.


Can students purchase my collection online?

Yes. Our arrangement with Campus eBookstore allows us to place the completed collection on their website, where students can purchase it directly.


How can my campus bookstore distribute my collection if they aren’t partnered with Campus eBookstore?

If your bookstore is not partnered with Campus eBookstore, your students can find your collection at the CampusEBookstore website, and purchase it directly.

Or, your institution’s copyright office can purchase your collection directly from us, and supply it to your students using your institution’s course management system.

And your campus store can order print versions of your collection, for sale to students.

Contact us directly, if you have any questions about how your students can access your collection easily, and affordably.


What is the price of course material?

The per-page price of course readings on our site is set by each publisher, and is usually 10-12 cents per page. Some material is public domain or is available for free public use, in which case the price is 0 cents per page. Your bookstore  sets the final student price of the collection.


What are the restrictions on the material I receive?

Collections created with Canadian CourseReadings are licensed for use in a single course during a single semester. The digital PDF files of your collection will have the name of the course, instructor and semester included, so that the terms of the license the purchaser has purchased are clear.


Can I re-order a coursepack to use in another course?

Collections provided by Canadian CourseReadings are licensed for use in a specific course during a single semester that you specify when you place your order. If you would like to re-order a pack to use during another semester or for another course, click on the “My Account” button. From your account page you can view a list of packs you’ve ordered. By clicking “Order Again” you will add that material back into your shopping card. You can then add or remove readings from your pack, or proceed directly to the checkout to place your request.


Can I order material for research purposes?

Should you wish to use any materials you find on our site for research, please follow the link provided on each product page to the item listing on the publisher’s website. There you will find information about how to obtain a print or digital copy.

If you need a complete copy of a book for review or examination purposes, go to the publisher’s website where you will find information about how to request a digital or a print copy.


Can I request review copies of titles on Canadian CourseReadings?

Once you create your free user account, click the preview button on each product page to view the full text of each chapter of every book on the site. 

If you would like to request review copies of any titles on the site in digital or print format, please follow the link provided on each product page to the item listing on the publisher’s website.


Can I request chapters from a book that I don’t see on your site?

Participating Canadian publishers have selected titles to add to our collection, and we are constantly adding new titles – both recently released, and older titles. We are also actively recruiting additional Canadian publishers to participate in this project. If there is a book you would like to be able to access on our platform, please contact us at [email protected]. We will contact the publisher to let them know that there is interest in their book, and offer to add it to our site.


Our campus copyright policy is that it is “fair dealing” to use one chapter of a book for educational purposes, without permission and without payment. Does that apply to the chapters on your site?

No. We believe that the “fair dealing” exemption described in many institutions’ copyright policy manuals is a reasonable and fair approach to course use of chapters and chunks from published books when students would otherwise have to purchase an entire book in order to access a small portion of that book. We also believe it is a reasonable and fair exemption when arranging for copyright permission of a small portion is complex, time-consuming, and unpredictable and, therefore, expensive.

Our platform offers a new approach to this situation. Chapters of all the books on our site can be easily identified, browsed, purchased, and delivered with full copyright permission. The prices publishers have set for these chapters and chunks of content are a very reasonable 10-12 cents per page. 

Once a course instructor has assembled a collection, the steps involved in obtaining that collection in digital or print format are just as familiar and simple to a campus bookstore as the steps involved in ordering any book for course use. There is no need for any extra administrative time to identify copyright owners, seek permission, and negotiate prices. 

The bottom line is that, when chapters and chunks of a book are easily discoverable and available at reasonable prices, we believe it is no longer “fair dealing” to use them without permission and without payment. 

We hope that you agree, and that you will use our platform to obtain course readings.

If you or your campus bookstore or copyright office staff would like to explore this topic further, please contact us directly.


Why should students or institutions pay for course readings?

Canadian CourseReadings offers a pay-for-use approach for access to individual chapters of published books, at reasonable student-friendly prices.

Revenues earned on our site by publishers and authors supplement revenues received from sales of full print and digital copies of these books.

Adequate revenues from the sale of Canadian scholarly and academic titles are vital to the ongoing publishing of new material in the humanities and social sciences.

The pay-for-use approach is transparent to users, and our micro pricing is in contrast to the pricing practices of some publishing multinationals.


I have a question which is not answered here. How can I reach you?

We can be reached at [email protected], or by phone at (902) 209-5179. Our office hours are Monday to Friday 8–4 EST. Our office is remaining open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada.