Materials on Reserve
Service Overview
Library Reserves contain materials for specific courses that have been submitted by course instructors. There are primarily two kinds of Reserves: Physical and Electronic. Physical Reserves are held at the circulation desk of Bizzell Memorial Library or branch libraries and are available for shorter check-out periods, generally either four hours or three days at a time. Electronic Reserves (E-Reserves) are hosted on Canvas and added by the Canvas course's owner.
What We Offer
Course instructors can request that materials be placed on reserve. Physical materials are available for students at the circulation desk. We will also scan any library materials into PDF format for instructors to upload to their Canvas courses as electronic reserve items. Additionally, the Bizzell Memorial Library holds a collection of required textbooks and calculators that have been selected for reserve to alleviate the cost burden for students.
- Physical materials on reserve
- Scanning materials to PDF
- Textbooks and scientific/graphing calculators on reserve
Get Started
Students - Find Materials on Reserve
Physical Reserves
To locate items such as books, videotapes, and photocopies that your instructor has placed on physical reserve, go to the Catalog on the Libraries' website. From the advanced search interface, change the search scope to "Textbooks." Here you can search for your readings by title, course name, course number, or instructor. The list of results will include the matching titles for your search along with corresponding call number, holding library, and current availability information.
Physical materials are available at the circulation desks at Bizzell and the branch libraries. You must present an ID card in order to use these items. The materials may have a loan period of four hours or three days, depending on the type of item and the instructor’s request.
Course Instructors - Place Materials on Reserve
Submit a Request
To request that items be placed on physical reserve or scanned for electronic reserve, you may use the following methods:
Copyright Policy
All requests must comply with our copyright guidelines.
Plan Ahead
Please plan ahead and allow at least two weeks for items you would like to have on reserve at the beginning of a semester; requests are handled strictly in the order they are received.
Using Material in Consecutive Semesters
Material may be reused in subsequent semesters if the initial use was determined to be a fair use under our copyright policies. The Reserves Department does not maintain a list of Reserve items from semester to semester. Instructors are responsible for notifying us before the end of the current semester if they wish to retain the item on reserve for the next semester or hold it over the summer for fall semester.
Reserve Videos for Classroom Use
If you plan to show a video owned by OU Libraries in class and want to ensure that the video is available for your use, you can put your video on reserve a few days before your class and remove it a few days after. This way, students who missed seeing it in class can borrow it for 4 hours to view. Please note the date you will be showing it on your reserve request form, and contact the Reserves manager by email or by phone at (405) 325-5704 the day before class during business hours to ensure the video will be available for your class.
What Must Be Included in Your Request
- All photocopied materials must include a photocopy of the copyright statement from the original (with © symbol) and a complete citation.
- Sections of Books must include: the title, edition, volume, place of publication, publisher, data, ISBN and the pages copied.
- Articles must include: the complete name of the journal, volume, issue number, issue date, ISSN, and the page copied.
- A completed Reserve Request form must accompany all items.
How to Send Items to the Reserves Department
There are several options for sending items to the reserves department. You may:
- Bring or send the original item or a photocopy to Bizzell Memorial Library circulation desk.
- If you have found an item in one of our databases, send the name of the database, the author, and the title of the article.
- Send us the call number and other information for an item in our collection, but please be aware that if we have to find the item on the shelves ourselves, it will take longer, particularly at peak times at the beginning of each semester.
- Personal items may be placed on reserve; however, the Reserves Department is not responsible for any wear and tear, damage, or loss of personal or departmental copies. Please be aware that the Reserve personnel will label all personal copies with several adhesive stickers and a magnetic strip.
Electronic Reserves
Instructors who submit scan requests will receive the scans as PDF files via OneDrive or email. They will then need to upload the PDF files to their Canvas course so students can access them.
Contact Information
FAQs
To Add a File to Canvas:
- In the Modules section, click + to add a new item
- Use the drop-down box to select the File
- Select New File
- Choose File to upload
- Click Add Item to save
If you need any help with Canvas, please contact the Office of Digital Learning.
Read more about Library Resources in Canvas.
Copyright Disclaimer
The information presented here is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Legal questions should be directed to the University of Oklahoma Office of Legal Counsel.
Guidelines for Copyright Compliance in Reserve Collections
The University of Oklahoma Libraries maintains a course reserve collection to support the instructional requirements of some courses. Materials in this collection include materials from library and personal collections, including varied formats, as well as reproductions and photocopies. The collection may be held in the main library or in any of the branch libraries or may be scanned by the library and added to Canvas by the owner of the Canvas course.
Fair Use
In accordance with the fair use provisions of Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, an amendment to Title 17 of the United States Code, and in a manner consistent with the CONTU (National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works) guidelines, the University of Oklahoma Libraries may include copyrighted materials in the course reserve collection or scan materials at the request of the instructor.
It is the sole responsibility of the instructor to determine if fair use is applicable. The University of Oklahoma Libraries does not provide copyright analysis of materials an instructor wishes to place in course reserves. For assistance in making this determination, you may visit the OU Provost office's site on Copyright, TEACH Act and DMCA. The Provost office also has a guide to Course Materials.
Overview of What Materials Can be Placed on Canvas
The University Libraries will scan materials for use on Canvas if:
The University Libraries has a current license for access to digital versions of the copyrighted material. In that case, the citation and the persistent/stable URL for the electronic version of the material can be added to Canvas to provide direct access to the requested material.
Copyrighted material for Canvas that has been acquired legally or will be purchased by the Libraries or instructor.
Copyrighted material for which permission has been received from the copyright holder to place the material on Canvas.
Works done by a student or another faculty or staff member which are accompanied by a signed permission form.
Scope of Material that Can Be Included on Canvas
Canvas access may include:
- materials for which digital versions are licensed to the University of Oklahoma
- short items (such as an article from a journal, a chapter from a book or conference proceedings, or a poem from a collected work) or excerpts from longer items
- articles, chapters, poems, and other works that are of such length as to constitute a substantial portion of a book, journal, or other work of which they may be a part
- articles, chapters, poems, and other works of a customary length and structure as to be a small part of a book, journal, or other work, even if that work may be marketed individually.
Electronic reserve systems should not include any material unless the instructor, the library, or another unit of the educational institution possesses a lawfully obtained copy.
The total amount of material included in electronic reserve systems for a specific course as a matter of fair use should be a small proportion of the total assigned reading for a particular course.
Notices & Attributions
On a preliminary or introductory screen, electronic reserve systems should display a notice, consistent with the notice described in Section 108(f)(1) of the Copyright Act. The notice should include additional language cautioning against further electronic distribution of the digital work.
If a notice of copyright appears on the copy of a work that is included in an electronic reserve system, a copyright statement shall appear at some place where users will likely see it in connection with access to the particular work.
Materials included in electronic reserve systems should include appropriate citations or attributions to their sources. Any section copied from any book or journal must be accompanied by A PHOTOCOPY OF THE COPYRIGHT STATEMENT FROM THE ORIGINAL (with © symbol) AND A COMPLETE CITATION.
FOR BOOKS: Title, Edition, Volume, Place of Publication, Publisher, Date, ISBN, and the pages to be copied. (These can be found using the First Search website located on the Library homepage.)
FOR JOURNALS: Title, Volume, Issue #, Month/Day, ISBN, and the number of pages copied.
Access & Use of Reserves Materials
You can add access electronic items to your Canvas course.