LibAnswers: Library Policies

Course reserves is one part of the library’s affordable learning initiatives. The purpose of reserves is to ensure student access to learning materials in order to increase the affordability, accessibility, and attainability of higher- and post-secondary education for our students.

Selection of Materials:

Materials shall be selected for reserves by instructors for their course sections from the library’s physical and digital collections, by donation of materials to the library collections, or by requesting the library process and circulate their own materials as course reserves (personal reserves). While the library will do everything possible to preserve the condition of personal reserves, the library is not be responsible for damages due to student use.

Acquisition of any material, whether for reserves or other purposes, shall be governed by the library’s collection development policy or eTextbook purchases policy.

Items that may be placed on Reserve include:

• Required readings and media viewings (physical and electronic copies of books, articles, media and other learning materials; chapters of e-books)
• Samples of assignments provided by the professor
• Supplementary materials
• Equipment necessary for coursework

All copies of copyrighted materials placed on reserve shall be lawfully obtained and allowed to circulate under first sale doctrine (17 U.S.C. § 109), rights granted by the rights holder, fair use, public domain, or other licensing terms.

Items that may not be placed on reserve include:

• Items obtained through Interlibrary Loan
• Reference collection materials and Other Non-Circulating items
• Materials from other public/ academic libraries
• Bound volumes of periodicals
• Course packs
• Consumables (workbooks, standardized tests, etc.)
• Original materials from archives or special collections.
• Media for which specialized equipment is needed to view or interact with the media and which the library does not house, unless the equipment needed to view the media is also provided by the faculty.

Photocopies and Scanned Copies

If the library owns or licenses a copy of a work for which a reserve request has been made (either in its entirety or selections), the original shall be circulated with the exception of articles. Articles shall be made available in an electronic format when possible, but photocopies of articles from library-owned journal volumes may be made available on reserve in compliance with fair use guidelines when an electronic version is not readily available from the library’s collection.

Access:

Only LSUS students, faculty, and staff shall have access to course reserves in accordance with LSUS and Noel Library circulation and electronic access policies. Furthermore, instructors may request that their personal reserves be circulated only to certain students, typically by providing a class roster.

All reserves, whether physical or digital, shall be processed (whether online or in the ILS) to include the title of the work, the course number, and the professors name for identification and request by students.

Access to reserves material shall be determined by material type. Physical materials shall be housed and circulated at the Circulation Desk and electronic reserves shall be made accessible on the library’s website or through an appropriate hosting platform. It is strongly recommended that instructors also link to electronic reserves within their course on the universities LMS.

• Reserves from library physical collections will be circulated in-house for a period of 2 hours.
• Personal reserves owned by professors will be circulated in-house for a period of 2 hours by default. Professors may request that materials be circulated for other, standard periods of time including 1 week, 6 weeks, or 1 semester.
• E-Reserves will be circulated in accordance with fair use guidelines and/or licensing agreements for each resource as applicable.

All distribution and circulation of reserves shall be in accordance with all applicable copyright laws. The following standards apply to the use of copyrighted works placed on reserve.

• Materials placed on reserve shall be for educational purposes only.
• Digitized print materials distributed as e-reserves will include a citation of the source publication and a form of copyright notice. The library shall place on reserve only as many copies as it owns and/or has license to distribute.
• Access to digitized materials circulated as e-reserves will be terminated at the end of each semester following final examinations;
• Library reserves staff will investigate whether materials requested as e-reserves are available through an electronic database and will provide stable links to such readings when possible.
• Any request for digitization of materials will be subject to a thorough fair-use evaluation to ensure it does not exceed current fair use guidelines. Requests that are deemed to exceed fair use guidelines will be denied.

Fees and Fines

Overdue print items on reserve will be assessed a fine of $.50 per hour, up to a maximum fee of $10.

Lost items on reserve will be subject to the library’s regular fees for lost items.

Equipment and Technology on Reserve

Faculty may place equipment or technology on reserve. However, the library claims no expertise in the use of any equipment or technology placed on reserve. Faculty should instruct students in the proper use and management of any equipment or technology placed on reserve for student use.

Management Processes for Reserves:

Requesting Reserves

Faculty may request items be placed on reserve in two ways:

• Bringing materials to the circulation desk and filling out a reserve request form.
• E-mailing the circulation department or the Head of Resource Management and Discovery. A copy of the reserve request form will be provided via e-mail for the faculty member to complete.

Receipt of any physical materials for reserve will be coordinated with the faculty member on a case-by-case basis.

Managing and Removing Reserves

• Physical Reserves for GenEd courses (100- and 200- level courses) shall remain on reserve for two semesters (Fall and Spring). All other reserves shall be removed from circulation at the conclusion of each semester. Faculty will be notified of the upcoming removal of materials for their courses and may request items remain on reserve for the next semester.
• Once physical materials are removed from reserve, library materials will be returned to their original locations within the collection. Personal reserves, materials owned by faculty shall be placed in a central location for pick-up before the beginning of the next semester (Fall and Spring 16-week semesters or Summer 1). Personal reserves that are removed from reserve and which remain unclaimed more than 1 month past the start of the next semester may be treated as donations.
• E-Reserves are managed according to 16-week semesters and are posted beginning 1 week before the semester begins and are removed 1 week after the semester ends. Courses in AP and 8-week semesters are managed along with materials for the 16-week semester in which they fall.