What is Course Reserves?

A library service that allows instructors to make course materials available to students at the 3rd floor Circulation Desk in Woodruff Library and/or online with the web application ReservesDirect.

Why would I reserve course materials?

To provide your students with backup copies of required course materials, to offer your students optional course materials and/or to give your students the convenience of online materials.

What course materials can I reserve?

Books, CDs, DVDs, bound volumes of periodicals, microfilms, and other materials owned by the library or by you can be set aside in the library. Articles, book chapters, audiovisual clips, and images can be placed online; we will digitize material for you upon request. You can also upload files such as syllabi, lecture slides, and assignments to ReservesDirect.

Can I reserve materials at other Emory libraries?

Yes. You can send Woodruff materials to other Emory libraries or bring other Emory libraries’ materials to Woodruff, although CDs and DVDs usually stay in the Music & Media library near the audiovisual equipment. Also, the Chemistry, Music & Media, Oxford, Business, Health, Law, and Theology libraries offer separate reserves services, though all Emory libraries use ReservesDirect.

How do I reserve course materials?

Use ReservesDirect to reserve materials you or other instructors have previously reserved; to upload files; to link to websites, articles, and eBooks; and to convert faxes to PDFs. You can also search for an item in the EUCLID catalog and click the “Request” button, or you can fill out a Reserve Request form online or at the 3rd-floor Circulation Desk in Woodruff Library.

Can my teaching assistant manage my reserves?

Yes. Add your assistant as a “proxy” in ReservesDirect by going to the Manage Users tab.

Will Course Reserves digitize material for me?

Yes, as long as the material is compliant with copyright law. You can ask us to digitize an item by searching for it in EUCLID and clicking the “Request” button or by filling out a Reserve Request form online or at the 3rd floor Circulation Desk in Woodruff Library.

How long will my Reserve Request take?

Current policy is that Reserve Requests submitted before the end of the current semester will be placed on reserve by the first day of the next semester. Reserve Requests submitted after that will be processed in the order they are received. Please contact us for rush requests.

What’s all this about copyright?

Only part of a book, CD, or DVD published in the U.S. after 1923 or in Europe after 1909 can be put online for your class in ReservesDirect or Blackboard without permission. For books, this usually means 1-2 chapters. We can sometimes get permission from the copyright holder to put more than that online, and the library will pay the cost. For more information, see http://web.library.emory.edu/services/circulation/reserves/copyright.html.

Should I use ReservesDirect, Blackboard, or LearnLink?

That depends: LearnLink is best at creating student community, Blackboard is best at administering courses, and ReservesDirect is best at providing course materials. You can’t reserve a book in the library with Blackboard, and you can’t fax a journal article directly into Learnlink. You might want to use all three; you can export ReservesDirect courses to both Blackboard and LearnLink / FirstClass. See this chart for a full breakdown of the features of all three programs.

I’m having / my students are having trouble with ReservesDirect.

You can always e-mail us at reserves@emory.edu, call us at 404-727-2230, or come ask for us at the 3rd-floor Circulation Desk in Woodruff and we will troubleshoot your problem. You can also use the quick troubleshooting guide below.

Make sure you / they have an Emory NetID.

Visit http://it.emory.edu/ or call 404-727-7777.

Make sure you / they have the correct “Default role” privileges.

Click “Edit Profile” in ReservesDirect to check your own privileges.

Make sure your course is active.

ReservesDirect courses are usually available about 3 months before the semester starts. If you see the course title in ReservesDirect, click on it to make sure the “Class Status” has an “Active” status with the correct dates.

Make sure your course materials are active.

Click on the course title in ReservesDirect to check that each of your materials is “Active”; students cannot see “Inactive” materials.

Make sure your students are enrolled in the course.

Click on the course title in ReservesDirect and then on the “Enrollment: [view]” link or the “Enrollment” tab to make sure.