Course Reserves

Faculty members often have the Library put books, articles and/or other materials 'on reserve' for use by a particular class. This Reserve collection is kept behind the Circulation Desk and arranged by the Instructor's last name.

Because these items are heavily used, most have a 2-hour in-house limit of use. In some cases items may be loaned overnight (check out 1 hour prior to closing and due 1 hour after opening the next day). Student ID is required and held until Reserve item is returned.  

Electronic Reserve

Per the request of the instructor, Conant Library makes course material available via the World Wide Web to the Nichols College community, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week from the library's online catalog. Access is limited to students registered in the course and, similar to the paper Reserve Collection, will be organized by instructor name or course name/number.

How to Access E(lectronic) Reserves

1. From the Library's homepage click on the Books/Media link.

2. Click on the Conant Library's Online Catalog link

3. Click on the green E-Reserve tab

4. Search by Instructor's name

5. Click on the Course Number/Name

6. Click on the item you want

7. Click on the link that says 'Click Here to Access This Resource'

(Note: Most, if not all, e-reserve items are in .pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat to open and read.)

For Faculty

The Electronic Reserve System adheres to current copyright law by relying on the educational fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17 U. S. Code)and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

1. The purpose and character of the use;
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 marked for or value of the copyrighted work.

Where copyright permission is needed (including copyrighted items that have been previously placed on reserve), it is the responsibility of the requesting professor to obtain copyright clearance. Conant Library will be happy to assist.

When submitting material for the Electronic Reserve System it is requested that the following guidelines be observed:

• For "homegrown" materials, such as exercises/worksheets, please submit an electronic version in either Word or PDF format along with a hardcopy. Other materials, such as book chapters and/or articles can be scanned by library staff. Please allow sufficient lead time for processing. Materials will be processed on a first-come, first-served priority basis. Author and title should be clear; please attach a cover page with your name, course number, and full title citation for each document.
• In keeping with copyright "fair use" guidelines, the following material is appropriate for Electronic Reserve:
  • Exams, exam keys, and homework solutions
  • Lecture notes
  • Student papers
  • Government publications
  • Journal articles
  • Book chapters
• In keeping with copyright "fair use" guidelines, the following material will not be accepted for Electronic Reserves:
  • Material extracted from consumable workbooks which students would normally be expected to purchase.
  • Journal articles which have been included in a coursepack students are expected to purchase.
  • Copyrighted materials that do not include a complete citation and/or clear indication of copyright ownership.
• In cases where copyright permission is needed, please submit written documentation that such permission has been granted.
• When submitting documents for Electronic Reserve, please consider:
  • Legibility: Copies should be clean and clearly legible. Larger font sizes result in a better image for on-screen reading.
  • Length: Scanned images create large files and may cause downloading and/or printing problems for some users. If possible, limit the length of a single item to 15 pages or less.
• At the end of each semester, each electronic reserve document will be removed from the system unless it is in the public domain, or permission has been granted for more than one semester, or appropriate royalties have been paid.

The electronic copying and scanning of copyright-protected works for library reserve service are unsettled areas of the law which may be addressed by the Supreme Court or future revisions of the copyright law. To ensure that these services are in compliance with the letter and the spirit of the United States Copyright Law Conant Library will continually monitor legal developments that may affect the fair use analysis of electronic reserve services.

If you have any questions about the Electronic Reserve System please contact Jim Douglas, x2333.