Guidelines for Submitting Reserves
During the first few weeks of a new semester, processing time can be up to 2 weeks. Please submit your reserve requests at least 2 weeks before they will be needed for the class. To process reserves, the Reserve Request Form must be used.
Note: Physical materials used to support programs within the College of Arts and Architecture will be placed on reserve at the Creative Arts Library, all other physical materials will be located at the main reserve/circulation desk at Renne.
You are responsible for ensuring that materials placed on reserve for your class meet the criteria of Fair Use as defined by Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 (see Guidelines for Classroom Copying of Books and Periodicals).
All materials are removed from reserve at the end of the semester. If you have questions or problems, please contact Bob Tetro, Circulation Team Leader, at ext. 5278.
Reserve Request Forms
Request forms for all types of reserves are available at: Reserve Request Form. The first page will ask for your User ID and password. Support staff may also submit reserve requests for instructors by using their own User ID and password. Please note that only MSU employees may submit reserve requests.
After logging in, the next page will ask for information about the course. This includes the instructor's full name. While not required, providing the instructor's Banner ID number (GID) will help us to expedite your request.
You will then be presented with different forms specific to the type of material being requested (books, exams, journal articles, etc.). Clicking the "submit" button on the form will send the information via email to the library reserves desk staff.
Library Owned Materials
If you request Library owned materials for reserve, Library staff will retrieve those items and route them as appropriate.
Non-Library Materials
Non-library items will need to be brought to the reserves desk for processing. We ask that you first fill out and submit the online request form before bringing materials to the reserves desk.
Improving the Quality of Printouts for Students
Please note that the quality of the final printout of an electronic reserve file depends in large part on the quality of the original copy. Holding a book open on the copy machine and not closing the lid when copying will often cause large black areas on page borders. These areas greatly expand the size of the scanned documents, and use excess toner and processing time to print out. We ask that you trim off dark borders or recopy if necessary. Please leave at least a 3/8" white margin around all sides of the page. A smaller margin will often result in cutting off text during the scanning process.
Pictures/graphics don't reproduce well on black and white copiers. If pictures are not of good quality on your copies, paste over them with white paper and scotch tape before recopying. Small font size will also cause problems when viewing or printing scanned documents. Please avoid reducing the size of documents when copying. We ask that all faculty review their submittals to the library for copy quality, and fix copies if necessary. All submittals must be single sided and on full sized sheets (8.5 x 11").
Book, Video, DVD, CD, Audio Tape
Books, DVD's, CD's, and audio tapes may be placed on physical reserve behind the reserve/circulation desk.
Book Chapters, Journal Articles, Paper Items (class notes, past exams, etc.)
All book chapter, journal article, class notes, exams, quizzes, homework examples, and similar requests will be processed for electronic reserves only unless requested otherwise.
MSU Libraries provides licensed access to many online journals. Articles from these journals can be linked to the E-reserves list for your course. Please verify that the article is available through MSU’s Library Website before completing the request.
Electronic Document Files
The library accepts electronic files in ppt, doc, rtf, txt, jpeg, pdf, and html format. However, the library will not link directly to non-library web resources for E-reserves (web pages, non-library journal articles, etc.). We will also not accept these as printed items for scanning. Instructors are advised to place such links in their course web pages, syllabi, or Web-CT courses.
Changes in technology have allowed many documents to act like computer programs. They can be made to perform operations on your computer. Security problems with this technology can be exploited by malicious parties. The library does not intervene by "policing" documents. We do not scan for viruses or other malicious code imbedded in them. Documents are the sole responsibility of the creator. Faculty and other document creators are strongly encouraged to contact the ITC Helpdesk if their PC has become infected and is passing on malicious content.
The library strongly recommends that students utilize all standard desktop PC protection strategies on their own PC such as virus and spyware scanners. These protections are already provided in most campus labs.
Special note regarding file size:Please be advised that many of our students use dial-up connections and have difficulty viewing and printing large files. Therefore, we ask that you limit file size to 8MB. File size can be reduced by breaking up larger files into parts, eliminating photos or graphics within the document, or reducing scan quality.
Items Previously on E-Reserve
When E-reserve materials are removed at the end of the semester, they are archived for 2 years to allow for future use. This material can be re-posted for the current semester by submitting a request form for "items previously on E-reserve."
Last modified: June 18, 2008