Placing Items on Course Reserves

Course reserves provides students access to physical and online items placed on reserve by professors. Faculty teaching courses may place library or their own items on reserve.

The sections below explain policies and procedures for adding items to reserves:

Physical Reserves

1. Complete the Faculty Request for Course Reserve form.
2. Bring your items and your Buffalo Gold Card within two business days:
   • If the items that you want placed on reserve are a part of the library's collection, the staff will be happy to retrieve them for you
   • You may send students and/or secretaries to the Library with your items as long as you have submitted the form.

Preparing Personal Items

Photocopies

• All photocopied items must follow copyright law guidelines.
• Please do the photocopying yourself, and place the photocopied items in a sturdy binding.

Personal Items

• All personal copies of items placed on Course Reserve must be 2-hour, in-library-use only.
• The Library is not liable for the loss and/or damage of personal copies. However, the library staff will contact the patron concerning replacement charges, consistent with library policy.
• The Library will attach stickers, labels, and other items to your books.
• Items owned by the Library may have a different checkout period.
• The Library generally does not collect textbooks.

Confirmation of Availability and Access

• Once processed, your item will be posted and accessible on the Cornette Library's catalog under Course Reserves.
• The library will confirm by email when your reserves are ready.

Note: Please wait for our confirmation email before telling your students that the reserves are available.

Removing Course Reserves

You should regularly review your reserves to make sure they are still needed. The library will send a notice via email to all faculty and staff before the beginning of any given semester. This notice will ask if Reserves need to be renewed for that semester.

Note: Please remember that personal items must be removed from the catalog by staff before they are returned.

Warning: Any items not confirmed for semester renewal by the deadline given will be removed and given back to their owners, or returned to the library’s collections as appropriate.

Online Reserves

Please complete the Faculty Request for Course Reserve form and attach any course items already in electronic format (e.g. website, PDF, Word, etc.).

• Access to online items may take 48+ hours from the receipt of the item. This is due to the way that the discovery service (Primo) updates. Longer delays may occur based on available staffing or time of year. Longer delays are rare. Items handed in on Friday may take longer as staff do not process Reserves on the weekends.
• Photocopies should be neat, clean, and legible, preferably with numbered pages. If your reserve item is an article, the original article is preferred over a photocopy. Our scanner is capable of reproducing items in archival quality, including color.
• eReserve items can be text, sound, image, or links.
• eReserve items should be broken down into short segments (e.g. weekly assignments, articles, chapters, exams, etc.). This permits quicker downloads for your students. In addition, full color items are typically large files and may take longer for students to access.
• In order to abide by the Fair Use guidelines of U.S. copyright law, all digital files will be password protected. Only WTAMU students and faculty of the specific class may access the items. To open the files, your students will be prompted to enter their Buff Advisor username and password. Faculty will log in using their WT network username and password.

Guidelines for eReserve Documents

Copyright Fair Use Considerations

Laws pertaining to copyright must be observed. Please review Title 17 Copyright Laws.

West Texas A&M University's Cornette Library gives special emphasis to these copyright considerations:

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

The library reserves the right to select which items will be processed for eReserves. The library will not place items on eReserve if the nature, scope, or extent of the item is beyond the reasonable limits of Fair Use. Faculty should obtain permission to use copyrighted items contained within their course materials or website. The library will not place an entire copied book on eReserve.

Faculty may choose to place sample exams, lecture notes, journal articles, course syllabi, and assignments on eReserve. It is acceptable to copy a poem. Fair Use does not allow for copying sections of works that make up a substantial portion of the work as a whole. A substantial portion is considered 15% or more.

Format

Class notes, exams, and other items should be neatly typed and printed on a laser jet printer to improve the quality of the PDF file. Exceptions for handwritten items may be made on a case-by-case basis. Items sent in electronic format requires minimal processing and therefore may be available to students in a relatively short period of time. When possible, the original document containing articles should be submitted to allow for quality reproduction.

Length of Document

Whenever possible, documents should be broken down into short segments. This is especially important for limiting downloading and printing time. Documents should be broken down by: weekly class readings or assignments, individual articles and chapters, single exams, etc. The proportion of items placed on eReserves for a given course should be small in relation to items used for the course overall.

Copyright Permission

Course Reserves will only include items that are lawfully obtained either by the library or the instructor requesting the item. Lawfully obtained is defined as anything that is either purchased or obtained by way of the Fair Use provisions. Copyrighted items will be retained in reserves for only one semester. Items to be repeatedly placed on reserve for the same instructor and the same course will require copyright permission. Similarly, items used by multiple instructors require copyright permission or purchase of the item.

Class notes, exams, and other items created by WTAMU faculty and/or staff will be retained until August 31. Contact Amy Webster in a timely manner if you wish these items renewed.

Preceded by Copyright Notice

All copyrighted items in the eReserve Collection will be preceded by the following copyright notice.

When to Write for Copyright Permission for eReserves

• When a journal article will be left on reserve for more than one semester.
• When multiple articles from one journal issue are placed on eReserves.
• When one chapter of a book is intended to be left on reserve for more than one semester.
• When multiple chapters of a book are intended to be placed on eReserves.

Confirmation of Availability and Access

• Once processed, your item will be posted and accessible on the Cornette Library's catalog under Course Reserves
• The library will confirm by telephone and/or e-mail when your items are ready to be used

Note: Please wait until receiving our confirmation before telling your students that the item is available.

Removing Course Reserves

You should regularly review your reserves to make sure they are still needed. The library will send a notice via email to all faculty and staff before the beginning of any given semester. This notice will ask if Reserves need to be renewed for that semester.

Note: Please remember that personal items must be removed from the catalog by staff before they're returned.

Warning: Any items not confirmed for semester renewal by the deadline given will be removed and deleted.