Course Reserves for Instructors

General Information

The Reserves Service allows us to limit access to certain materials to only Radford University-affiliated patrons.

The McConnell Library Course Reserves Service acts as an extension of the classroom to provide access to supplementary course materials in support of the academic mission of Radford University. This service is provided upon instructor initiation, within the bounds of the Fair Use guidelines of the Copyright Act as described in Title 17, United States Code. This service is for the use of all faculty, students and staff of Radford University. This document explains our policies regarding reserve materials and adherence to Fair Use. The Course Reserves Service is designed to provide equal and timely access to supplemental course materials for all students in a course. The Service is not designed to replace textbooks or provide coursepacks. Supplementary course materials cannot be placed on Permanent Reserve.

What can be placed on Course Reserve?

The Library will place on Course Reserve (either in the physical collection or electronically) materials that we own, including books, articles, sound recordings, and more, plus other materials based on the guidelines in the chart below (not an inclusive list). Please note that practical considerations may affect these guidelines, e.g., we may need to limit the digitization of individual materials because the workload is prohibitive, and the download time would be prohibitive for some users. For example, making a digital version of a whole book, even if we own it, would be time intensive and impractical.

*Media
Original editions of sound recordings, videotapes, DVDs, microforms, books of images and any other library-owned or instructor-owned media may be placed on Reserve. Currently, the Library does not digitize these materials for Electronic Reserves.
The Library provides access to Classical Music Library, ArtStor, and other media-based electronic resources. We will provide persistent links to these resources as the licenses permit.

*Instructor-Owned Copies
A personal copy of an item for Electronic Reserves will be accepted when a library-owned copy is unavailable. However, every attempt will be made to acquire a library copy. Instructors may be required to show proof of copyright compliance.
Instructors may lend their personally-owned, legally obtained copy of a book, article, or other material to the Library for the use of students registered in a course. If a physical item is lent to the Library, it will be affixed with identification and circulation labels and security strips. The Library will not be liable for damage or loss of such materials. A portion of the book may be digitized for student use upon instructor request.
Instructor material such as old exams, lecture notes, syllabi, and book chapters or journal articles from personal copies may be placed on Electronic Reserve. Book chapters and journal articles provided by the instructor must meet Copyright and Fair Use requirements as outlined in our policy.
A chapter or an article from Interlibrary Loan may be placed on Reserve for one semester and must otherwise fall within Fair Use. The Library will obtain permission if necessary. The instructor retains ownership of the copy. Entire books, recordings or other media obtained through Interlibrary Loan may not be placed on Reserve.

Access to Course Reserves

Course Reserves are accessible through the Library’s online catalog by professor name, course name, or course number only. Users will not be able to search for these documents any other way. Digitized materials are available to authenticated users 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Print materials and media are available for restricted loan periods at the Circulation Desk whenever the Library is open. Physical reserves held at the Harvey Center or Extended Campus locations will be available during these locations’ hours of operation. McConnell Library informs patrons that any further transmission or distribution of reserve material violates copyright laws. Course Reserves are removed/returned at the end of each semester (or before, at instructor’s request).

To view or print Electronic Reserves the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is necessary.

Can Course Reserve items be accessed through BlackBoard?

Faculty can provide direct links to articles that they have placed on Reserve in WebCT. In order for this to work you must copy the URL with the proxy string so the system authenticates the user when attempting to access it. To do this you need to select the article in Course Reserves, then right click on the red “View Article” link. In FireFox choose “Copy Link Location;” in IE choose “Copy Shortcut.” This will copy the link with the proxy information.

Who may put materials on Course Reserve?
Faculty and Staff may put materials on Course Reserve for specific RU courses.

Fair Use and Copyright

McConnell Library makes a good faith effort to adhere to the U.S. Copyright Law and Fair Use Guidelines. In general, the Library will acquire all necessary permissions and pay appropriate royalties. In exceptional cases, instructors will have to acquire permission to use materials. We reserve the right to reject materials when acquiring permission becomes prohibitive.

The following sources are among those reviewed in the creation of this policy.

• United States Code, Title 17, Copyright Law. Sections 107 and 108 are applicable for library use. The Fair Use Guidelines, from Section 107, allows limited use of copyrighted works without permission; it suggests examination of these four factors: Purpose and character of use; Nature of the copyrighted work; Amount and substantiality of work; and Effect on the market for the original work.
• ALA’s Model Policy Concerning College and University Photocopying for Classroom, Research and Library Reserve Use.
• ALA’s Fair Use and Electronic Reserves statement.
• CONFU’s Guidelines for Electronic Reserves Systems.

The Library will place these items on reserve without obtaining permission (not in inclusive list):

• Exams, exam keys and homework solutions
• Lecture notes
• Student papers (instructors must submit permission from the students)
• U.S. Government publications
• Material within the Public Domain
• One article or 10% from a journal issue not owned by McConnell Library
• One chapter or 10% from a print book not owned by McConnell Library
• A total of two chapters or 20% of a non-journal work owned by McConnell Library
• One short story, short essay or short poem
• One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book or periodical
• A short excerpt (not to exceed 10% of the total) of a work which is not divided into chapters or articles
• Material for which the instructor is the copyright holder.

Non-Compliance

The Reserves Supervisor determines whether instructor requests fall within this policy. Requests that fall outside of the scope of the service will not be processed.

If an instructor’s request falls outside of Fair Use, the Reserves Supervisor will attempt to acquire permission from the rights holder. Items in the Public Domain do not have a copyright holder and therefore do not require permission; however, there may be cases where the proscribed use is prohibitive (streaming audio, for example). When the Library determines that it must refuse a reserve request, the Reserves Supervisor will contact the person submitting the request(s). Instructors may appeal to the Head of Access Services.

Submitting Course Reserve Requests

To place material on Reserve, please submit course, item, and loan period information by emailing the Reserves Supervisor or by printing and delivering the Course Reserves Request Form  to the Library’s Front Desk.  Library staff will pull any McConnell Library-owned materials on your reserve list for you.