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Services for Individuals with Disabilities

University Libraries


Frequently Used Tools:


Reserve Collection @ Hodges

The reserve collection consists of packets of readings, books, online materials and webpages. Reserve provides a place where instructors can bring together many different resources to assist them in teaching their particular classes.

The type of items placed on reserve are:

  • copies of articles, tests, study guides, slides etc. which are scanned for online access.
  • books and periodicals owned by the library,
  • and books and periodicals owned by the instructor.

Audiovisual material is not placed on reserve in the Hodges Reserve Collection, but usually in the Media Center or in the Music Library.

[Special Collections and Map Library materials are not placed on reserve.]

This does not mean that the reserve collection has a copy of every course's tests, lecture notes or text books. Instructors choose to use reserve very rarely; only about 10 to 15 % of all courses offered during any one semester have anything on reserve and only 5% of these courses actually have exams on reserve.

An instructor may choose to allow Reserve material to circulate for very short periods of time; in general most things can not circulate for more than 2 hours during the day.

Personal Copies

Personal copies may be copies of the textbook or other reference book, packets of readings or other loose collected material that is provided by the instructor for use in their classes. This material is returned to them at the end of the semester. The personal copies are located behind the Second Floor Circulation Desk.

Online Material

We now automatically scan photocopied items which are brought in to be placed on reserve. (The exception is if the professor requests that we not scan.) These items may be accessed from the Online Catalog. It is no longer necessary to come to the Reserve Collection to access most photocopied materials.

We do keep at least one hard copy in the department of items which are brought in for the current semester in case there is a problem accessing the online items. If the item is an old scan, we do not generally supply a hard copy, unless the instructor specifically requests it. In most cases we put all the online items together into one Reading Packet and file it under the professors name in the office behind the Reserve Desk. In the catalog these are called Personal Copies.

There is a handout located at the Second Floor Circulation Desk which explains how to access the online material. You can access this handout online at: http://www.lib.utk.edu/reserve/student/student_handout2.pdf

Library Books

The library books are located behind the Second Floor Circulation Desk. These are books from the regular collections in the library system that have been brought together to assist the student. This prevents one student from monopolizing the necessary class material thus allowing every student an equal opportunity to access them.