Faculty Course Reserve Information: Print and Electronic
- Quick Link to Print Reserve Form
- General Information
- Print and Other Physical Formats
- Electronic Reserves
- Copyright
General Information
Do you have materials for a course that you would like the Library to include in a restricted print collection or to which you want the Library to give online access? If you do, then the Library's Reserves service can help you.
The focus of the Library's service is material for which copyright might apply. Class syllabi, practice exams and problem sets are not covered by the service. Items will be placed on reserve only at the request of the course instructor. Course reserve materials are intended solely for non-commercial, educational use.
Every effort is made to process Reserves requests quickly. The earlier reading lists are received, the more time library staff will have to recall books that have been charged out, to purchase or borrow books and articles not in the general library collection, or to scan documents.
Reserves in Print and Other Physical Formats
The Reserve Collection in all libraries at Amherst College is a semester by semester grouping of print and other physical materials for use by students in Amherst College classes. The Collection can include books, photocopies, videos, CDs, DVDs, etc. The loan period for physical items is usually four hours, although materials may be checked out for overnight use anytime within 4 hours of library closing. Don't forget you can also have the Library put articles, chapters, music files, etc., on Electronic Reserve. All materials in the Course Reserve Collection are listed by title in the Reserve Module of the online catalog under Course Instructor and Course Number.
Please use the Reserve Form to submit requests for the Reserve collection. On each list, indicate the Department and number of the course, the title of the course, all faculty members who will be teaching it, and the number of students expected. Lists should be submitted by email to Maryanne Alos for Frost Library; to Jodi Schneider for the Science Library; to Ann Maggs for the Music Library.
For each item, please give a full and complete citation and call number (if already in the circulating collection). If no edition is specified, staff will assume that any edition will do. Reserve staff will submit orders for items not already owned by the Library.
Electronic Reserves
The Library offers an Electronic Reserve service -- with digital texts, images, and even sound files -- to support Amherst College courses. The Academic Technology Services (ATS) of Information Technology offers a complementary streaming video service for required videos. To see the materials on Electronic Reserve for your courses, you may log in to the College's CMS using your Amherst College username and password. You will have access to the courses you are teaching under My Academics in your portal; students will have access to only the courses in which they are enrolled.
Wait! Don't pay copyright fees before you send the Library your reading list for Reserve. Let the library staff link to available online copies for Electronic Reserves first. The College should not pay for links to items already in the Library's online collections. If the material already exists in electronic format and is freely available or licensed by the Amherst College Library, a link will be created to it on the Electronic Reserves course page rather than copying it.
Please submit a list of required material electronically (e-mail message, MS Word, Word Perfect, etc) and clearly indicate which should be put on electronic reserves. Indicate the week during which you expect to be using the material (or please submit a course syllabus). Electronic Reserves texts should be short enough to scan into reasonably sized PDF files. Longer works such as complete books cannot be copied and stored electronically. Include complete citations to all material. Materials will be listed by complete citation on the Electronic Course Reserve page for each course.
Electronic Reserves During Add-Drop Period: During the add-drop period, Amherst and Five College students not officially registered for a course may gain temporary access to the electronic course materials (including E-reserves and online videos) by requesting a petition. All requests received before 3:00 P.M. on weekdays will usually become active the following morning by 7:00 A.M.
Copyright
Amherst College adheres to and promotes observance of US Copyright laws. The basis for library course reserves is the provision of the United States Copyright Act of 1976 which states in part: " ... the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, is not an infringement of copyright." The section goes on to detail the four factors to be considered in determining whether fair use applies.
More information about copyright and fair use.
For each course item, faculty themselves are responsible for guaranteeing either that principles of fair use apply or that permission of the copyright holder is being obtained. Whenever possible, the Library will purchase copies of books, videos or journal articles intended for extended Reserves use. Electronic Reserves copies of materials that are the equivalent of course packets should be cleared with copyright holders just as print packets are.
At the end of each semester, access to electronic files will be discontinued. At the same time, as an additional service, the Library will give faculty and department coordinators a list of the items that have been copied for Electronic Reserves so that they can check it against their own list of pemissions.
Rightsholders should direct any complaints about possible copyright infringements to:
Rick
Griffiths
Associate Dean of the Faculty
Converse Hall
Amherst College
P.O. Box 5000
Amherst, MA 01002-5000
(413) 542-8178
send comments to: Margaret Adams Groesbeck