Faculty Services

Reserves and E-Reserves

Course reserves allow you to make materials accessible to your students. The SU Library offers:

• Physical reserves, available at the Zaffere Library
• eReserves, available online

 

Physical Reserves

All types of physical items can be placed on reserve, including books, DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs, and printed copies of journal articles.  If the library owns a copy of the item that you want on reserve, we can move that from the regular circulating collection to the reserve shelf.  If the library doesn't own a copy of the item, you can bring a personal copy for us to put on reserve for your specified timeframe.

You can set your physical reserves to be borrowed for:

• 2 hours
• 1 day
• 3 days
• 7 days
• Whole semester

Reserves that are set for a 2-hour loan cannot be taken out of the library.

You can choose to put your items on physical reserve for:

• Fall semester only
• Spring semester only
• Both fall and spring semester

You can choose what happens to the material after the end of the semester(s):

• Automatically return to library collection or owner
• Discard
• Contact your liaison librarian to let them know what to do with the material

If you're ready to put an item on physical reserve, fill out our Reserves Form and bring the item to the Zaffere Library.

 

E-Reserves

Material that can be easily duplicated, such as a book chapter or journal article, can be uploaded to our electronic reserves system, also called e-reserves.  Students will be able to go directly to the e-reserves link and download or print the material for their own use.  E-Reserves are especially convenient for students taking online courses.

Due to copyright laws, all e-reserve items must be password-protected.  You can choose your own password, or the librarian can choose one for you when creating your course and uploading your material.  Once your liaison librarian uploads your items to your e-reserves course, they will provide you with the link and the password if necessary.  You can provide your students with the link (or instructions) and password in your syllabus, Blackboard course, or both.

Copyright also regulates how much of an item can be placed on e-reserve.  For articles, uploading the entirety of the article is acceptable.  For books, the general rule of thumb is 10% or one chapter, but contact your librarian with questions.

If you're ready to put an item on e-reserve, fill out our Reserves Form and let us know how to access the item.

 

Copyright and Fair Use

 

Physical Reserves

Stevenson University Library will accept faculty course reserves that comply with the copyright laws of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). The law is complex, but for educators, the “fair use” doctrine (Sec. 107) is the most important part of the law as it gives guidance to users of copyrighted materials on when it is permissible to legally use copyrighted work without obtaining specific permission from the copyright holder. (See Copyright Law of the United States of America for the text of the entire law).

 The fair use doctrine of the law allows for limited reproduction of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes. The following factors are used to determine if the use is permissible:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• The nature of the copyrighted work;
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, and
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

According to Kenneth Crews in Copyright Essentials for Librarians and Educators “you… need not satisfy all four factors; courts balance them to identify their overall leaning-in favor of or against fair use.”¹ Each time you plan to put an item or items on reserve, the above four factors (purpose, nature, amount and effect) must be examined to determine if you are in compliance with the law. For example, if you put five copies of the same article on reserve every semester, you may satisfy the requirement of educational purpose, but the effect on the market of repeated use and the high number of copies would probably make this practice a violation of fair use.

The Fair Use Checklist created by Kenneth D. Crews (Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Butler(University of Louisville)  and available at Columbia University Library's Copyright Advisory Office will help in determining if the item(s) you plan to put on reserve meet the criteria for fair use.

 

E-Reserves

E-Reserves are governed by the same principles of copyright law as print reserves but with some added complications. Unfortunately, the library and publishing communities were unable to come up with a consensus for guidelines on handling electronic reserves, so each institution must make its own attempt to comply with the law.

At Stevenson University Library, the following policies will apply to e-reserves:

• The Library will issue passwords for instructors to provide to their students to get access to e-reserve material
• Articles, book chapters, and class notes may be put on e-reserve; entire books cannot
• The first time an article (or book chapter) goes on e-reserve, it is not necessary to obtain permission; if the same article will be used in subsequent semesters, permission must be obtained.

 

Books from Other Libraries

The Library will not place books borrowed from other libraries on reserve, regardless of whether the book was obtained via interlibrary loan or borrowed directly from the other library.

The Library staff would prefer to purchase copies of books for course reserve and will strive to acquire its own copies, even if they are out of print, in lieu of personal copies of books.