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The University of Tennessee

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Course Reserves

Instructions for Faculty

The UT Libraries’ course reserve service allows professors to augment the course textbooks with articles, books, study guides, tests, webpages, audiovisual materials, and other supplementary materials. Normally, the loan period of these items is short so that class members may all have access to them. While UT Libraries have long offered the reserve service, now the Libraries are also able to provide online access to course reserves.

What is online course reserve?

  • Online course reserve is a library service providing supplementary course materials as Adobe Acrobat PDF files that are delivered to students via computer. A major advantage of online reserve is that it makes these materials available to students on or off campus, 24 hours a day. Access is limited to students and faculty using ph username and password.
  • Students will find lists of materials reserved for their courses through the UT Libraries catalog. Both online reserves and physical reserves are listed together. The items are searchable in the catalog by department / course number combined with course instructor. For online reserve items, the full text is then available via a URL link in the catalog record. For reserve items physically in the Libraries, the location (Hodges Reserve, AgVetMed Reserve, or Music Reserve) is listed.
  • The Libraries are moving to replace reserve photocopies and original faculty materials (study guides, tests, problem solutions, etc.) with Adobe Acrobat PDF documents delivered online. Our goal is to replace all photocopy reserves by 2004. We will process either online reserve items or physical reserve items for a course, but it is too costly to offer both.
  • Audio or visual media clips may be prepared for online delivery through the Digital Media Service (DMS). See their website at http://digitalmedia.utk.edu or contact Renee Smith, DMS Coordinator, at rsmith48@utk.edu to discuss participation in the pilot projects.

Are there alternatives to online reserve or in-library reserve?

  • CourseInfo software facilitates the creation of online courses or can be used to provide access to materials that supplement existing courses. The UT Innovative Technologies Collaborative (ITC) at http://www.it.utk.edu/itc/ manages CourseInfo and can assist faculty in setting up course sites and managing their own materials.
  • Course Packs may be a viable alternative for copyrighted materials that require permission for use. They are particularly useful when larger portions of the original work are needed, when a quantity of articles are being used to substitute for a textbook, or when the materials will be used repeatedly over time. Generally, course packs are collections or anthologies of materials copied by commercial copy shops. The copy shop seeks permissions for any copyrighted materials, and the course packs are then sold to students. The costs vary and will include any royalty or copyright charges paid to the rightsholders. Frequently students appreciate the availability of a course pack because it saves them time in obtaining the materials.
  • Order materials through the University Bookstore for students to purchase.

What may I submit for online reserve?

  • Reprints, photocopied or scanned articles, and book chapters are suitable but must be accompanied by the original copyright statement.
      Sample copyright statements:
        Copyright 1997 by Rourk Associates or
        Copyright (c) 1968 University of Chicago Press.
  • Examinations, study guides, problem sets, and other materials created by the instructor are accepted.
      Advice: Include your own copyright statement or, at least, a statement of authorship.
  • Audiovisual materials may be mounted for online reserve. The easiest way is to have segments digitizedby the Digital Media Service (DMS) and accessed via your Blackboard course. For access via the Library catalog, we still recommend digitization by DMS. Please confer with Rene Smith, DMS Coordinator, at rsmith48@utk.edu
  • All materials submitted must be legally-obtained copies.
  • For our Copyright Policy for Course Reserves, including Course Reserve Guidelines, see http://www.lib.utk.edu/plan/copyrt/rsvcopyrt.html. A helpful Fair Use Checklist is available at http://www.lib.utk.edu/reserve/faculty/checklist.pdf.

What may I submit for in-library reserve at Hodges Library Reserve, Agriculture-Veterinary Medicine Library Reserve, or Music Library Reserve?

  • Books will be placed in regular reserves. The library will not scan or accept scans of entire books. The library will attempt to purchase needed books if they are not already in the UTK collection. Personal copies of books are accepted for reserve, especially if there has not been time to acquire the book for the library collection.
  • At the Music Library, regular reserves include audio and video recordings, scores, and books.
  • At the Agriculture-Veterinary Medicine Library, regular reserves include books, audio and video recordings, (35 mm) slide sets, CD-ROM and multimedia materials.

What is not accepted for reserve?

  • The Libraries’ bound volumes of periodicals are not accepted. Photocopies of individual articles will be scanned for online reserve.
  • Course packs will not be placed on reserve in the Libraries or online. By design, course packs exist to meet copyright permission requirements and are meant to be purchased by students in the course.

Tips for submitting print materials for online reserve to assure best quality

  • Submit clear, clean photocopies (8.5 x 11 page size) with white margins suitable for scanning. Dark borders and dark illustrations create large files that download and print very slowly.
  • Submit documents in electronic format if possible.
    • Remember, submitting an item electronically will save processing time. Documents produced using Power Point, Word, Excel or scanned as JPEG, or Adobe Acrobat PDF files can be submitted as an attachment to the reserve request form, on diskette, or zip disk.
    • Submit documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format whenever possible. Use black and white scanning at 200 dpi (dots per inch) for best results.
  • Our scan settings are optimized for text. If your print document contains gray-scale or color images essential to the course information, consult with Reserve staff.
  • Special note: If a document has been an online reserve item previously, please note this when requesting the item be placed on reserve again.

Processing Time

  • Online reserve items will take longer to process than regular reserve items, if library staff must scan the photocopy. A good rule of thumb: Submit items at least two weeks before they are needed. Allow 5 business days for processing of all reserve items. At the beginning of each semester there is a huge quantity of reserve processing. Items are processed in the order received so the earlier submitted, the quicker reserve items will be available to student.
  • For audiovisual online reserves, extensive lead time is needed for encoding sound or video clips to support course assignments for an entire course. Consult with staff in the semester prior to your need for the reserve materials.

When my materials are available as online reserves, how do my students and I access them?

How do I learn more about copyright matters that relate to teaching?

Connect to the Online Catalog to find reserve materials for your course.

Course Reserves

For Faculty