Course Reserves

 What are Course Reserves?

Course Reserves provide equal access to course materials. Physical materials, such as books, journals, and DVDs, may be requested by faculty for a specific course and held at the Lending Services Desk for the semester. Electronic reserves, such as scanned articles, audio/video clips, and links to other online materials, are made available to faculty and students via Canvas.

Students may search Course Reserves to see what professors have set aside for their courses.

Faculty can place library-owned materials or personal items on reserves for their course. To request materials to be placed on Course Reserve, faculty can do one of the following:

Reserve periods are for 2 or 4 hours or 1 day. Students may take out one AV item or 2 print materials at one time. Requests to place items on reserve should be made two weeks in advance of class assignments to ensure access for your students. During the first two weeks of a semester, there is usually a backlog of requests that will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Please submit your requests as early as possible.

If an item has already been placed on reserve for another course, we ask that you obtain permission from the faculty member who has placed the item on reserve before using it for your own class.

Materials placed on reserve must comply with copyright laws. In general:

  • The library or the instructor should own a legally obtained (not pirated) copy of the item being placed on reserve.
  • Duplications of small portions of a legally obtained copy can be placed on reserve. For duplications in larger amounts, especially duplication of an entire work, library staff may need to request permission from the copyright holder.
  • Items from the library’s reference collection can be placed on reserve with the permission of the subject specialist.
  • Reserve items should be considered supplementary readings, not replacements for textbooks.
  • Streaming videos in Panopto will be removed at the end of the semester

The above copyright guidelines comport with the Muhlenberg College Copyright Policy.

For questions about course reserves, faculty may contact Amanda Riegel, Public Services Assistant, at [email protected] or 484-664-3540

Reviewed 2021