Course reserve materials are items that the library holds aside for a class. These items are shared among everyone in the class, and each student has a limited time to use them. The borrowing duration is determined by your instructor and may vary from a few hours to a few days. 

Material is located at the Access Services Desk. Checkout periods are limited, please plan accordingly.  

More information for students 

• The borrowing time for reserves range from 1 to 3 hours or 1 to 7 days. The borrowing duration is set by your instructor. Renewals are not permitted. 
• To find a reserved item or check its availability status, go to the course reserves in Koha. 
• Items must be returned directly to the access services desk. 

More information for instructors 

• Instructors must complete a Course Reserve Request Form to request course reserve materials 
• Requests can be made for books and media, including instructor’s personal materials 
• Requests can be submitted any time during the semester and are processed in the order in which they are received 
• For scanned copies of chapters and articles, please contact the IT Teaching and Technology Center for assistance with scanning and uploading to Blackboard 
• Material belonging to other libraries, whether obtained personally or through Interlibrary Loan, and videos obtained from an outside source (such as Netflix) may not be placed on reserve.  
• When possible, we strongly recommend that instructors link to database or journal content rather than copying and reposting content 
• Read more about Copyright & Fair Use Guidelines 

Copyright & Fair Use Guidelines

Copyrighted materials made available via Course Reserves are for use in class and for course study outside of class (including in the library). The use of copyrighted materials in all formats, including the creation, online delivery, and use of digital copies of copyrighted materials submitted for reserve, must follow U.S. Copyright Law.  

The Library’s policy concerning photocopies of copyrighted materials on Course Reserve is defined by the Copyright Act (17 U.S. Code, §107 and 108). No one should post content consisting of copyrighted material or portions of copyrighted material without first: 

• Determining that the content falls within the public domain, 
• Obtaining permission from the copyright owner, or 
• Determining, after a reasonable analysis, that the content is of fair use for which permission is not required. 

The 1997 Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) established guidelines for educators incorporating portions of lawfully acquired copyrighted works into their educational programs. These are guidelines only, and not mandated by law – they provide a starting point for assessing whether your use of material qualifies as Fair Use. The recommended guidelines are: 

• No more than 10% or 3 minutes (whichever is less) of motion-based works; 
• No more than 10% or 30 seconds (whichever is less) of a song or video; 
• No more than 10% of a text; and 
• Entire photographs or illustrations may be used provided that no more than 10% or 15 images (whichever is less) come from any one source. 

Fair Use allows limited use of copyrighted materials for educational and research purposes. The statute outlines four factors that should be assessed in determining whether a use is a Fair Use. These are: 

• Purpose and character of your use 
• Nature of the copyrighted work 
• Amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and 
• Effect of the use upon the potential market. 

The test is, intentionally, fact dependent. You need to look at each use individually to determine if it is a Fair Use. 

Linking is not Copying 

Maxwell Library provides access to many databases and electronic journals by subscription agreement with vendors such as EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, Project Muse, and ProQuest. Licensing agreements vary in addressing whether content may be downloaded and posted to an e-reserves system or learning management system (such as Blackboard). We strongly suggest that faculty link to database or e-journal content rather than copying and re-posting the content.