Collection Development - Reserve Material
Library

PUTTING MATERIALS ON RESERVE

All materials put on reserve must comply with the regulations set out in the Copyright Law, Title 17, U.S. Code. It is the responsibility of faculty members to acquaint themselves with the copyright law, since, under the law, anyone copying materials is liable for what he copies. Being ignorant of the law does not insure immunity from prosecution. The library is responsible for monitoring copyright compliance of Reserves materials and, as such, has outlined the following conservative guidelines for both printed and electronic documents which must be adhered to (materials that do not adhere to these rules will be refused):

• Only one article from a journal issue, one chapter of any book, or one chart, one diagram or one photograph from any source, may be placed on Reserve. 

• Materials authored by the instructor (such as lecture notes, exams, etc.) may be freely placed on Reserve.

• Student papers can only be placed on Reserve if the students have granted permission in writing.

• Works in the public domain may be placed on reserve. For example, most U.S. government works are in the public domain.  If the work was first published more than 75 years ago it is safe to assume that copyright has expired and it is in public domain.

• Consumable materials, such as workbooks, may not be put on Reserve.

• Stock characters are not protected by copyright. However, well-developed characters, especially visually-depicted ones, may be protected under copyright and trademark laws.

• Documents put on Reserve for one semester may not again be used in a future semester without the written permission of the copyright owner(s). All materials in paper format will be returned to the instructor at the end of each semester, except for selected permanent reserve items.  All electronic reserve documents will be archived at the end of each semester.

• All documents must bear the complete citation from which the copy was made. This is to be placed on the first page of the photocopy, at the top, if possible. E.G. Psychology in China, Vol. 23, #3, May, 1988, pp. 241-252.  

• All paper documents must bear a copyright notice stamp on the front page of the article. The library staff will do this.  In order to view electronic documents, students must first agree to the copyright notice statement.

• The following policies apply only to reserves in paper format:

  • If the library owns the original from which the copy is made, that too may be placed on Reserve.  If an item is on order from the library, two copies may be put on Reserve but when the original item on order arrives in the library, one of those two copies must be removed.

  •  Multiple copies of an item may not be placed on Reserve without the written permission of the publisher; this written permission must be presented to the library at the time the items are put on Reserve. Original reprints from an author or publisher may be used. 

  • Instructor anthologies from copyrighted sources may not be put on Reserve.

  • Out-of-print books may be freely copied but only if every reasonable effort has been made to purchase a copy (second-hand booksellers must be polled for this also) or borrow a copy. 

FAIR USE

The concept of "fair use" is somewhat unclear. The library has, therefore, interpreted the Copyright Law conservatively. One way of approaching the concept of "fair use" is to ask if you would like more than a small portion of your own academic work taken without your permission. Another is to consider that the idea of using another's materials is to illustrate class concepts, not to formulate them in a broad sense, like a textbook or a comprehensive issue of a journal would. 

TIME FRAME FOR RESERVES

Books:  Generally, the library needs six weeks notice in order to process Reserves materials. If books are checked out, they need to be recalled. If the library doesn't own books they will have to be bought; this takes at least a month.

Articles:  Faculty must submit their photocopied articles for Reserves to the library two weeks before the items need to appear on Reserve.

RESERVE FORMS

Reserve forms must be filled out in full by the faculty member and submitted along with their materials to the Circulation Desk at whichever library location is nearest to the class being taught. A printed copy of the reserve form can be accessed by clicking here.

LIBRARY RESERVES ACCESS POLICY

The Reserves access policy is the same at the following Roosevelt's library locations -- downtown at the main library (x2081), at the Center for Professional Advancement (x3198), and at the Schaumburg campus (x7980). For information on Music Reserves, call the music librarian at x3648. 

Materials are put on reserve in the library, at the request of a faculty member, for those Roosevelt students registered in the faculty member's class. The intention is to set aside particular materials on a restrictive basis for the faculty member's students so that they can be assured continued access to the materials. As soon as the class is over the reserve materials are put back into the regular collections where they can be accessed by anyone.  

Reserve materials cannot be borrowed by other libraries or by students from other institutions. This is in accordance with the statement in Section V (D) of the ILLINET Online Library Resources Sharing Code. It is standard reserves policy in libraries that each institutional library provide its own reserve materials for its students.

Electronic reserves materials are password protected and may only be accessed by students in the respective courses.

SAMPLE LETTER FOR OBTAINING COPYRIGHT PERMISSION

This letter should be addressed to the copyright holder, which is not always the publisher.  The letter should be adapted for the specifics of each situation.

Dear Madam or Sir:

As a Roosevelt University faculty member, I have assigned the copyrighted material cited on the attached form as reserve reading for a course that I am teaching during the current academic year.  I am requesting your permission to place the cited material in the Reserve Room in print format and in the Electronic Reserve System in digital format.

Access to these materials is restricted to only the students in my class.  Access is searchable only by my name or the course number; the materials are not accessible by subject, title, author name, or any other parameter. A copyright compliance statement and full source citation will be attached to the document at all times.  Electronic access is password protected.

Please review the attached information and respond at your earliest convenience.  Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely yours,  

Revised:  January, 2003  

 

Library | Collection Development Policies