Faculty/Instructor Course Reserves FAQ

What are Physical and Electronic Reserves?

Physical Course Reserves: Books, journals, media, and other items (both from the library and from an instructor’s personal collection) are considered physical course reserves. These materials are available for a 2-hour, 3-hour, (for DVDs and videos only) 1-day, or 2-day loan period. Late charges accrue at $0.02 per minute for 2 and 3 hour loans and $3.00 per day for 1 and 2 day loans. This material is searchable through the Libraries’ online catalog. Physical course reserve material may be checked out with a valid BU ID at the Newcomb Reading Room in the Bartle Library and at the University Downtown Center (UDC) Library during regular library hours.

Electronic Course Reserves: Electronic Reserves allows your course materials to be available to students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through your course page on Blackboard. If you are new to Blackboard and thinking about using it, instructor help is available at the University Center For Training and Development.

Even if you choose not to use Blackboard in your class, the course can still be made available on your students’ blackboard homepages. The Libraries will maintain the Course Reserves section on your behalf.

Students will be able to access this material from anywhere with a computer and internet connection. Documents will be scanned by library staff and posted as Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files.  To view these files you must have a current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Microsoft Office files and links to other web sites can also be posted on electronic reserves.

What can be placed on Electronic Reserves?

  1. Materials written by the instructor (e.g.: syllabi, lecture notes, sample exams, problem sets, homework solutions)
  2. A chapter from a book
  3. An article from a journal
  4. Student papers (Student permission is required; please complete and submit Printable Form to service desk.)
  5. Links to articles in journals owned in electronic full-text by Binghamton University Libraries
  6. Links to books owned in electronic full-text by Binghamton University Libraries

What cannot be placed on Electronic Reserves?

  1. Scanned print books
  2. Reproductions exceeding one book chapter
  3. Electronic copies of audio, video, or image files

How do I submit a request for Reserves?

  1. Fill out an online reserve request form or stop at the Bartle, UDC, Science or Newcomb Reading room service desks.
  2. Give us a full citation for the book chapters or articles that you want placed on Electronic Reserves, even for those which you provide copies of.
  3. If you do wish to provide us with photocopies to scan, they must be clean, first-generation, single-sided, and unstapled.
  4. You can also send us your PDF and word files as email attachments, in place of providing photocopies of those items.

Tips for successful processing:

  1. Submit your reserve request form as early as possible before the semester begins.
  2. Instructors are encouraged to supply the library with current personal copies of textbooks and other required course purchases.
  3. All other purchase requests should be made as far in advance as possible, ideally six weeks in advance of the beginning of the semester.
  4. Ordering decisions are made through collaboration between Reserves staff and the selector for your discipline. There is no separate fund for Reserves and subject-area collection budgets are limited. Requests for textbooks and other required course purchases tend to strain existing collection budgets. The Libraries may not be able to purchase all requests for these items.
  5. Items from the Libraries' collections should be brought directly to the Reserves staff or a service desk along with your reserve request form.
  6. If you are a new instructor or this is a new course, you should consider contacting your subject librarian before submitting any purchase request.

When do I need to submit my request for Reserves?

Ideally, reserve request lists for either physical or electronic reserves should be submitted at least six weeks before the start of classes to allow for acquisition of material. In general, lists received three weeks in advance of the semester will be processed to the best of our ability before the first day of classes. Any lists submitted after that time will be processed in the order in which they are received. Additionally, the Libraries may need to seek permission from copyright holders to place certain materials on electronic reserve. Therefore, late submissions may not be completely ready before the start of classes.

How will my students find course readings?(Also see Course Reserves Information for Students on how students access reserves.)

  1. For physical reserves, they can search the online catalog and view lists of available material by going to advanced search, selecting “Course Number” under “Field to Search” and entering the course ID, ( i.e. ECON160A ).

  2. For electronic reserves, they can access the reserve materials by logging into Blackboard and clicking on your course listed on their Blackboard homepage. They then can click on “Course Reserves” and will find items arranged by author and title.

How can I get more information?

You can stop by a service desk or contact the Reserves departments directly:

Main Library Reserves:
(607) 777-3940
(607) 777-4848 -Fax
mainresv

On this page:

Physical and electronic e-reserves

What can be placed on e-reserves

What cannot be placed on e-reserves

Submitting a request for reserves

Tips for successful processing

When to submit a request

Student access to reserves

More information

Related Links:

Course Reserves

For Students

Course Reserves Copyright Guidelines

Reserves Submission Policies and Guidelines

Submit Request (Word doc.)

Contact Reserves Staff

Blackboard Problems?

Subject Librarians