Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
Today's hours: 12 noon - 2 a.m.
view hours
Ask A Librarian button
Share |

Course Reserves at Cook Library-
Information for Faculty

On this page:

Introduction

Cook Library will place on reserve selected course materials for your students' use. Reserves are intended for supplementary course materials only-items that are assigned in addition to textbooks or coursepacks that your students are required to purchase for class use.

Cook Library now offers reserves in physical format and electronic format (e-reserves). In either case, the library may place on reserve only copies of works that have been lawfully acquired by the instructor, the library, or some other unit of the University. Lawfully acquired copies include those that have been purchased as well as copies made in accordance with the fair use statute and other provisions of U.S. copyright law.

Physical reserves have traditionally consisted of the following types of materials:

  • photocopies of journal articles, book chapters, or other book excerpts
  • instructor-created materials, such as syllabi, sample tests, and lecture notes
  • entire books and musical scores
  • audiovisual materials, such as sound and video recordings

Items placed on physical reserve are made available to students for limited circulation periods and are typically restricted to in-library use.

E-reserves allow multiple users to access simultaneously online reserve materials at anytime and from any location.

You may request to have the same types of materials placed in e-reserves that you may request for physical reserve, with the following exceptions:

  • entire copyrighted books
  • copyrighted musical scores, including excerpts
  • copyrighted images (except those printed as accompanying illustrations to requested articles/book excerpts and those included in the ARTstor database)
  • entire copyrighted sound recordings, including complete individual tracks or entire movements of a work on a recording (however, complete recordings included in the Naxos database may be linked to from e-reserves)
  • entire feature films (only reasonable and limited excerpts may be streamed in e-reserves)

Whenever possible the library will place requested items on e-reserve rather than physical reserve, so that you and your students may benefit from the added convenience of e-reserves. However, physical reserves will still be provided by Cook Library when licensing or copyright restrictions prevent us from placing a requested item in e-reserves.

Requesting Course Reserves

The reserves process-whether for physical reserves or e-reserves-begins with the faculty member filling out the Faculty Request for Reserves online form.
Link to Request for Course Reserves form

Reserve requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. Online requests are needed for us to maintain a reliable record of the order in which requests have been received and to track copyright permissions.

You no longer need to provide photocopies or other physical materials for reserves unless we specifically request them. If the library does not own the item and it is no longer commercially available, reserves staff may ask to borrow your original copy.

The library determines when copyright clearance is required for any materials you have requested and pays reasonable license fees to the Copyright Clearance Center. In the event that clearance is required but cannot be obtained, the library will contact you to discuss alternatives. (For further information on fair use and when the library will seek copyright clearance for reserve requests, see the Cook Library Reserves Guidelines.)
Link to Cook Library Reserves Guidelines

Please allow at least three weeks for the library to process e-reserves requests that involve audio or video materials.

Once your request has been processed, library staff will notify you that your course reserves page is available in Docutek, the library's online reserves system. You will be given a URL and password for your reserves page.

Using Your Docutek Reserves Page

Your students will have two ways to access your Docutek reserves page:

  1. Via Blackboard/LearnOnline

    Instructors who have a BlackBoard site for their course may copy & paste the URL provided for their Docutek reserves page anywhere in their BlackBoard course site. Because BlackBoard is recognized as a trusted site by Docutek, the course page password is not required when students link from BlackBoard.

  2. Via the Towson Docutek homepage at http://towson.docutek.com

    From this page students can select their course reserves page by course number, course name, department, or instructor name. The course page password is required to access the course reserves page via the Towson Docutek homepage.

Your completed Docutek course page will list all of the items placed on reserve for your class. Links will be provided to those items which we are able to provide electronically. For those items which we are only able to place on physical reserve due to licensing or copyright restrictions, a note will be provided informing your students where the item may be requested in Cook Library.

Duration of Access & Reusing Reserve Materials

Your Docutek course reserves page will be accessible until the end of the semester. Access to the Docutek course reserves page or physical reserve items may be extended in special circumstances, such as for the use of students who have taken an incomplete in the course.

To reuse any materials in a subsequent semester, you will need to submit another Faculty Request for Reserves online form.

Please be aware that repeat uses of the same material for the same course may require costly clearance fees, especially if the library does not own an original copy of the work and cannot purchase one. The easiest way to reduce delays and copyright clearance problems is to limit your use of works in reserves to the portions described in the Cook Library Course Reserves Guidelines document (see sidebar for link) under the heading "Cook Library Responsibilities Regarding Copyrighted Works Placed on Reserve".
Link to portions described in above document

Serving Students with Disabilities

Cook Library is committed to providing equal access to its programs and services for students with disabilities, in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Instructors with students needing special accomodations to access course reserve materials should contact our Circulation Superviso, Paula Langley (plangley@towson.edu).

Contacts for Further Information

For more information about processing your reserves requests, contact Christopher Casamassima, ccasamassima@towson.edu.

For more information about copyright, fair use, and the Cook Library Reserves Guidelines, contact Rick Davis, rkdavis@towson.edu.

Link to Course Reserves Request Form

Course Reserves at Cook Library / Albert S. Cook Library
http://cooklibrary.towson.edu/eres/fac/reservesInfo.cfm
Last revised: December 08, 2008

Top of Page