February 18th, 2010, last updated August 18th, 2011

Overview

To facilitate the access by students to suggested or required course readings, faculty members may place materials on reserve at the Main Circulation Desk for a single term or for the entire academic year.  Reserve materials may be print materials such as library or faculty books, photocopies (hard or electronic copies) or, occasionally, bones! The Reserve collection is arranged by instructor, course and title. The loan term for each reserve item, including whether or not an item must be used in-library only or whether it may be removed from the library for a designated time, is specified by the individual instructor. Reserves, for the most part, are non-circulating. Films are put on reserve in the Moving Image Viewing Room to be checked out and viewed on-premises only. 
 
Print Reserves are available at the Main Circulation Desk in hard copy format.  Consult the Reserve binder at the desk; materials are listed alphabetically by instructor name.  If available, you can check out the item by presenting your university ID.
 
To find a list of these reserve materials, click the "Reserves" tab in the Library Catalog web page and choose to search either by course or instructor. Type in the course name or number or instructor name and submit. 
 
E-Reserves are delivered in the online catalog.  To log into the catalog and view them, click the Reserves link on the catalog and search for the course or instructor teaching the course.  If the item record shows a link with the words, “View or Print,” this item is available online and you can click the link to access it.  No print copies of E-Reserves are kept on reserve.
 
The Semans Library policy on E-Reserves is designed to maximize an instructor’s privilege under ‘fair use’ while respecting the rights of copyright holders. See: UNC Primer On Copyright Use (pdf)
 
 
How long may materials stay on Reserve?
  • Due to copyright guidelines, all reserve materials are removed from reserve at the end of the semester, after exams are completed for all courses.
  • The only exception to this rule is a course that is officially a two semester (“year long”) course -- items for such a course may stay on reserve for one academic year.
  • Faculty placing items on reserve are responsible for informing the Library whether a class is a one or two semester course.
  • No items will be kept on reserves beyond one academic year.  
  • Due to copyright guidelines, articles and chapters/excerpts from books can only be on reserve for one semester (with some exceptions for long-out-of-print material). If needed for more than one semester, faculty must arrange with the publisher for permission.
  • For more information on the Copyright Code of the U.S., please visit http://www.copyright.gov/title17.

After items are removed from reserve, personal copies will be returned to the faculty. Faculty are responsible for picking up personal copies when courses are over; personal copies left at the Library over 60 days will be donated to the library collections or, if not needed, discarded to surplus.

Loan Periods for Reserves
There are three different loan period choices an instructor may make on any given Reserve item. This is established by faculty when an item is put on reserve; you will be told at checkout when an item is due back to the library:
  • 4 hour, in-library use of an item
  • Overnight use of an item – check out an item within 2 hours of the library closing and you may keep it overnight. The item is due back within 1 hour of the library opening the next day. If you check out that same item earlier in the evening, the use period is 4 hours in-library.
  • One Day use of an item means that a patron may check out an item any time one day and bring it back by closing the next day.
  • A $10 processing charge will be added to the patron record after a Reserve item is overdue for 24 hrs