Faculty Guide to Reserve and ERes

Why choose Reserve?

Reserve services are available through each of our libraries, Main, Art, Conservatory and Science. At Oberlin College these services are heavily used by students needing access to both required and recommended readings. Materials for your classes can be made available through both print and electronic formats at each of the libraries. Reserve procedures and services vary in each library, contact the appropriate reserve supervisor for more information.

Main Reserve Processing Deadlines

Reserve lists (and additions or changes to lists) are processed in the order in which they are received. Rush requests are also processed in the order received.

Please note the following deadlines and faculty and reserve staff responsibilities. The earlier lists are received, the more work can be done by reserve staff.

Fall Semester

July 15th
August 15th

If you've missed a deadline

Spring Semester

December 20th
January 15th

If you've missed a deadline ...

Print Reserve

Print reserve includes any physical item you require or recommend that your students use for class. These materials are stored at the Circulation desk in each library; they are processed so that they appear on OBIS under your course where students can check on their availability. Most items circulate for 2, 3 or 5 hours depending on the material type and library.

• Books: Books may be your personal copies or library books. We will place multiple copies of library books which are not required student purchases on reserve. In many cases we will also place at least 1 copy of the "required purchase" books.
  
• Photocopies: Photocopies are used when the library has not yet been able to obtain the book or journal or as supplemental copies to books or journals already placed on reserve for your course. For advice on creating good photocopies for reserve, see Photocopies for ERes/Reserve (PDF).
• The library will not place items on reserve that violate College copyright policy or copyright law. For further information, see the Copyright Policy for Library Course Reserves.
  
• Videos: We will place personal copies on reserve and/or library videos. See the Main Reserve Video Policy.
  
• Audio: Records, tapes and CDs are most often circulated at the Conservatory Library for in-house use. Please check with the reserve/circulation desk supervisor in the library that will house your course materials.
  
• We will also circulate student articles, newspaper clippings, computer disks, or any other item needed for your class to complete their course work. We have different loan periods and circulation options available — contact the reserve/circulation desk supervisor to help you circulate any of your course items.

Electronic Reserve

The library staff is happy to help faculty manage their digitized assignments (readings/listening/viewing assignments) for classes.  We have a dedicated service, ERes, which puts assignments behind course-specific password-protection.  Faculty provide the course's password to any participant in the course. Alternatively, we can place digitized files directly into a course's Blackboard site, making them available to anyone officially registered for the course. 

To request electronic reserve service,

• Make your selections of readings to be scanned, links to web sites or electronic journals, or choose any other digital items you want available.  

• If you select journal articles, search the Journal Finder to see if we already have electronic access (via JSTOR, OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, etc.). It is faster to place links to articles, the quality of the images are greatest and the question of copyright is more clearly settled.

• Contact the appropriate reserve staff with the details of your requests.  Complete citation information is essential for swift service.  Library staff scan to pdf format readings that require conversion to digital format, as long as they comply with copyright policies.

• Let us know if you prefer placement on ERes or Blackboard.  If you wish us to place the files in Blackboard, request Library Access for your course(s) from OCTET.  This give library staff permission ONLY to created a new content area called Library readings and upload and manage files in this area.

Activating Reserve Lists

In order to re-activate a reserve list you must contact a reserve staff member in writing.

Copyright Guidelines

Instructors are responsible for insuring copyright compliance. Please note the library will not place items on reserve that violate College copyright policy or copyright law.

See our Copyright Policy for Library Course Reserves for more information.

Loan Periods & Fines

Reserve's priority is to ensure access to required and recommended readings to all the students in any class. In order to facilitate this access to a large number of students, we use short loan periods and high fine rates.

• Most reserve items circulate for 3 hours and are released for overnight loan at 9 p.m.. (8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday).
  • Materials checked out overnight are due 1 hour after the library opens.
  • Other loan periods include: 1 hour, 2 hour, 5 hour, 24 hour, 48 hour and 1 week
• Instructors can designate other loan periods by providing students with a written notice specifying the item and the loan period.
• Fines are $2.00 an hour. Students who pay promptly and bring their fine notice with them will be only be charged half of the total fine.

Please let us know how we can improve reserve services for you and your students.