Course Reserves: About Course Reserves

Is there an item on reserve for your class?

The purpose of the Reserve Collection is to provide special access to items needed for class assignments, or which may be in high demand. We offer faculty a traditional paper-based reserve option or access to the electronic reserve model ERes.

• Paper- Items at the reserve desk, which are normally, designated a 2-hour (in-house) check out period. Items with reserve status are listed in the online catalog under Course Reserves.
• ERes(Electronic Reserves)- online items accessed through a password protected web page to library materials placed on reserve by instructors for students enrolled in their courses.

Course Reserve items can be picked up in the Access Services (Circulation) Unit of the Leslie F. Malpass Library.

What Can You Do?

• Electronic reserves (ERes) are available online to students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even when the library is closed.
• Students can access required readings from the convenience of their home or in a computer lab.
• Students save money by printing out articles rather than making photocopies.
• Faculty can request items to reserve and the Reserve Department will retrieve materials available at WIU and make them available.
• The Reserve Department will apply for copyright permission for articles previously used and for multiple chapters from the same source.
• ERes documents can be accessed directly from the reserve tab in WestCat.

The purpose of Course Reserves is to facilitate access to multiple uses of materials by students in a class.

Instructors may place these items on reserve:

• Books
• Videos (DVD or VHS)
• Articles
• Newspaper
• Multimedia (CD's, DVD's, or Video Files)
• PDF

You can pick up physical reserve materials at the Library Access Services Desk on the 2nd floor.

Sometimes your course reserves will have a link to them.  You can get an electronic copy of the material. Click on the link, then login and you will get a PDF electronic copy of the document.

Multimedia & Videos

Videos on reserve cannot leave the library, DVD's can be viewed on any library computer with a disk drive or on the TV's in the digital commons. VHS's may only be viewed on the TV in the Digital Commons. Headphones are required when viewing video, you may borrow headphones at Access Services or in the Digital Commons office, your university ID will be required. If your university ID is already being held at Access Services then you will need to go there for the headphones.