Author: Adam Bradley

Note:

OCRA has been phased out as the library’s course reserves system. The Brown University Library has migrated to a new course reserves platform that integrates directly with Canvas and the Library’s BruKnow catalog. This document is for the purpose of historical information. The library’s new course reserves system can be found here.

OCRA is a platform for faculty to request digital course reserves in all formats.  Students access digital course reserves via Canvas or at the standalone OCRA site.  Students access physical reserves in library buildings via Josiah.

The following is the archive of ORCA development information.

Over the past several months I’ve added a number of new requesting features in OCRA. One side effect of this work was the creation of a framework for finding reservable items and adding them to OCRA with as little user input as possible. Our new Google Chrome extension is one use of this system.

The Ocrifier tool is designed to make it easy for OCRA users (faculty and staff) to add items from the Internet to course reserves. Install the extension (note: this link will only work if you are logged in to your brown.edu Google account), then click the Ocrify button on nearly any webpage to add a URL or a reference to a book or article to any of your OCRA courses.

Step 1

On any web page containing identifiers like ISBNs, DOIs, or PubMed IDs–or any page you’d like to include a link to in your OCRA class page–click the OCRA button in Chrome’s toolbar.

If you see the item you want to add listed, click its identifier to go to OCRA.

Step 2

OCRA describes the item it found for the identifier you selected and lists all classes you have access to. Verify that OCRA found the right item, then choose the class you want to add the item to.

Step 3

OCRA adds the item to your class; you can edit the item here to add a due date or sequence number.

Note:

OCRA has been phased out as the library’s course reserves system. The Brown University Library has migrated to a new course reserves platform that integrates directly with Canvas and the Library’s BruKnow catalog. This document is for the purpose of historical information. The library’s new course reserves system can be found here.

OCRA is a platform for faculty to request digital course reserves in all formats.  Students access digital course reserves via Canvas or at the standalone OCRA site.  Students access physical reserves in library buildings via Josiah.

The following is the archive of ORCA development information.

Over the summer and early fall, a number of new enhancements were added to the University Library’s Online Course Reserves Application (OCRA).

Improved Book and Movie Requesting

Last year, we improved the book request form by adding an automatic search for ebooks in the Library’s collections, and making it possible to add ebooks to a course OCRA page with one click. This feature was added to assist in implementing a new library policy limiting the number of physical reserves allowed at the Rockefeller circulation desk.

Over the summer, this new feature was expanded to support movie requests and to include physical book requests. Entering a title on either the movie or book request page will automatically trigger a search for materials in Josiah (the library’s main catalog) and generate a list of available materials. Clicking the request button for an ebook will instantly add a link to the course’s OCRA page; movie requests require a short form before being sent to video staff for digitization. Requesting a physical book this way will add a request and inform the Library’s circulation staff.

New Audio Request System

The library has switched to a new streaming audio/video solution called Panopto. As part of this shift, we’ve retired EARS, OCRA’s former Electronic Audio Reserve System in favor of a new, simplified audio request form that incorporates the same Josiah search functionality as the book and movie request pages.

Quick Requesting

You can type almost anything into the new box at the top of the faculty class view to try to add a request to your course instantly.

Above, we’re inserting an article by its citation; the new “Ocrifier” system can also handle ISBNs, DOIs, PubMed IDs, OCLC numbers, URLs, or Josiah IDs.