Librarian Roles in Canvas

You can add librarians to your Canvas courses with a range of different course level roles.

Each role has different abilities and levels of access within your course, so pick the one that’s the best fit. Focus on the access the librarian needs in your course rather than the name of the role.

If you'd like your students to be able to send the librarian messages from within your Canvas course, use the Course Librarian - Research role. This role is designed for users that need to add content to a course and interact with the students but not be able to access student grade information. This role can see the course roster.

These two other roles are also useful, but they can't interact with students using Inbox messaging:

• Course Librarian - E-Reserves: This role can add or copy content to courses but cannot interact with students or coursework information. (Choose a different role if you’d like students to be able to contact the librarian.)
• Teacher Reviewer: Teacher Reviewers have similar access to the Teacher role, but do not have permission to make changes to a course. This role has more broad access to your course than either of the Librarian roles listed above.

Our Librarians

To add one of our librarians to your course, start by copying the UW-Superior email address of the librarian you would like to add.

If you’re unsure who to add, please email askref@uwsuper.edu. You can also view our staff directory on the Jim Dan Hill Library website.

• Alecia Barbour, Research, Learning, and User Support Librarian: abarbour@uwsuper.edu
• John Esh, Archivist: jesh@uwsuper.edu 
• Hanna Paquette, Acquisitions & Collections Librarian: hpaquett@uwsuper.edu
• Natasha Schumacher, Systems & Digital Services Librarian: nschuma6@uwsuper.edu
• Stephanie Warden, Assistant Library Director: swarden1@uwsuper.edu
• Sara Winger, Resource Management and Data Services Librarian: swinger@uwsuper.edu 

How to Add a Librarian to Your Course Using the People Tool

Now that you’ve chosen a librarian to add to your course, and copied their UW-Superior email address, you’re ready to add them using the People tool:

1. Click People in the course Navigation menu.
2. Click the +People button near the top-right of the Canvas page. This will show the “Add People” pop-up window.
3. Paste the librarian’s UW-Superior email address in the “Email Addresses (required)” text entry box.
4. Click the “Role” dropdown menu and select the role you’d like to give the librarian in your course.
5. Click the Next button. You should see a message that reads “The following users are ready to be added to the course.”
6. If the listed user is correct, click the Add Users button.

Course Invitations

Any user you add to your course will receive an invitation as soon as you publish your course. They will receive one right away if your course is already published. 

How to Send a Message to Enrolled Librarians

Once you've added a librarian to your course with a role that can interact with students, your students can use the Canvas Inbox tool to send a message to the librarian, exactly as they would with their instructor. To start a conversation with the librarian enrolled in your course, your students should:

1. Click Inbox on the left side of the Canvas interface.
2. In the Inbox, click the Compose icon.
3. In the Courses drop-down menu, select your course.
4. Click into the To box and search for the librarian's name.
5. Click into the Message field and type your message to the librarian.
6. When finished writing, click the Send button.