Fresno State Library
Reserve Services
The mission of Reserve Services for is to provide students access to books and media, both physical and digital, that are required or supplemental for a course. The library works with faculty to provide short-term access to these materials.
The services offered are:
- Course Reserve Services - Use these services to place physical or print materials on the shelf for short-term checkout.
- E-Reserve Services - Use these services to create online reading lists for your courses.
Contact Information
Course Reserve Services
E-Reserves
Music & Media Reserve Services
Course Reserve Services
In addition to books and media, we also handle other materials such as course packets, tests, handouts, lab manuals, etc. Reserved materials are subject to copyright law which places restrictions on the amount and type of material that may be used for course purposes. Any items that do not meet copyright guidelines will not be placed on reserve.
More information for course and book reserves:
- Search for your books on Course Reserves
- Request materials be placed on reserve using: Reserves Form (for use only by faculty members)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
It depends:
- Using your Fresno State email credentials, fill out the Reserves Form
- Bring the material (if it is a personal copy) to the Circulation Desk (1st floor, North Building).
Books, CDs, Videos (DVDs or VHS)
Items can be checked out for 2 hours, 1 day or 3 days, depending on the book.
Reserve materials are added on a first-come, first-served basis. It generally takes 2-5 business days for material to be available. Occasionally this process is slightly delayed due to the volume of items/requests received.
10 items per course.
Yes. When you fill out the Reserves Form, please make sure to indicate that it is a library owned copy.
No. Only books owned by the Fresno State Library or a faculty member’s personal copy may be placed on reserve.
No preparation is needed. The library will place a call number, barcode and sticker with the faculty member’s name/department on the book.
Materials on reserve will undergo substantial wear and tear due to heavy use. In addition, we will add a barcode, call number and reserve sticker that allow us to process the item. Those stickers will not be removed when the personal copy is returned.
Unfortunately, it is possible that your personal copy can be lost or damaged while on reserve. This is part of the risk of placing your personal materials on reserve. If the student who lost/damaged the item pays for it, then the library can replace the item to be placed on reserve again. However, this is not a guarantee that the lost/damaged item will be replaced by the library.
Please search for the class on the course reserves page to see if the item you need is on reserve. If the item is not on reserve, the faculty member is the only one who can make that request.
The library does not purchase textbooks. The library will purchase materials in support of classes and research on this campus. We encourage you to Suggest A Purchase, however suggestions are not guaranteed to be purchased or placed on reserve.
Items are typically on reserve for one semester. Material will be evaluated at the end of each semester and items with low usage will be removed.
E-Reserve Services
The E-Reserves service aims to provide students with electronic copies of course materials to maximize the use of library-owned or subscribed resources, reduce the cost of course materials, and enhance student success by providing 24/7 access from any location through an authentication process. While not every course material is within scope for E-Reserves, the service does allow faculty to share materials with students within the limits of copyright and fair use.
Electronic reserves include:
- Small portions of books
- From the library’s collection
- From items personally owned by the instructor
- Copies of materials created by the instructor (homework assignments, quizzes, exams, syllabi, etc.)
- Permalinks to articles, ebooks, ebook chapters, etc.
- Government publications
- Links to open educational resources
- Audio/video clips and other items that conform to copyright laws
Be sure to watch our video tutorials and read over our frequently asked questions, below.
E-Reserves Process
Material can be placed on E-Reserves by faculty by using the E-Reserves submission form. Faculty can submit individual references for items owned by the library or provide a copy of the course syllabus, and library staff will search for available materials. Please allow adequate time for library staff to prepare your E-Reserves.
The library can only share material that has been lawfully obtained through faculty members' licenses or the library collection. The library cannot currently support the purchase of materials exclusively for use on E-Reserves, and our collection development policy prohibits the purchase of most textbooks. The library will also be unable to support copyright clearance fees at this time. Please refer to the copyright section below for more information.
Access to Materials
Access is restricted to students registered for a particular class and is not made available on the web for public view. Students can access E-Reserves through your Canvas shell. They will also be accessible from the Library E-Reserves page. An instructor-provided password is required. The library CANNOT provide students with course passwords.
Limitations, Copyright & Fair Use
Where materials do not fall within fair use, the items may still be a candidate for eReserve provided permission is sought and granted by the copyright holder. It is the instructor's responsibility to obtain such permission or determine in good faith after reasonable inquiry that fair use tenets cover the intended educational use of copyrighted material. The library cannot share complete works, materials not owned by the faculty member or library, or materials on loan from other libraries. The library reserves the right not to accept items if it judges that the material's scope, nature, or extent is beyond the reasonable limits of fair use.
Use this fair use checklist as a guide before submitting requests from E-Reserves.
Other helpful copyright tools:
- View the Library copyright policy.
- The Copyright Clearance Center has published a guide titled Using Electronic Reserves: Guidelines and Best Practices for Copyright Compliance which offers best practices and guidelines for using E-Reserves and methods to secure copyright permissions for E-Reserves.
- Visit the Copyright.Gov website for general information.
- Work with your library liaison, or Subject Librarians, to discuss fair use determinations.
Video Tutorials
Instructor Guide #1
Learn how an instructor can add electronic materials to their courses.
Instructor Guide #2
This video covers how an instructor can access and share their materials.
Student Guide
This video instructs students on how to access their instructor’s eReserve materials.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The library is unable to purchase course materials for placement on E-Reserves. If the instructor of the course has a copy of the material that can be used.
While this is a commonly used figure, copyright actually does not consider a specific number of chapters or percentage of a book in determining fair use. Instead, they use the four factors to determine if a given use meets fair use. We suggest faculty make the decision based on the four factors and not rely on any specific guidelines like percentage or chapter.
Sharing the entire textbook for your course would not fall under fair use, so we cannot offer the entire book on E-Reserves if we do not have an unlimited-user license to that title. We do have Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) capabilities, which restrict individual uses of digitized materials through DRM. Please contact ereserves@mail.fresnostate.edu for more information if you think this may be a solution for your course.
While we hope E-Reserves is helpful for you and the students in your course, it is not always a fit. The service intends to provide students with quick and easy access to course materials, and save faculty time in embedding materials directly to the course shell. If your course relies heavily on IA or custom online textbook components, licensing restrictions prevent us from being able to facilitate access. Consider this limitation when making course text adoptions.
While this varies based on format and time of year, here are some general guidelines:
- Electronically licensed materials: 24-48 business hours.
- Physical materials that need to be digitized: 72-96 business hours.
- Instructor copies: 72-96 business hours after the library receives a copy of the material.
- Due to high volumes of requests at the beginning of the semester we suggest requests be placed 4 weeks in advance of the spring and fall semesters to facilitate all items being in place prior to classes resuming.
E-Reserves staff will remove items from E-Reserves at the end of the semester. If faculty wish to reuse the course materials they should submit a new request.
Just submit this form and the library will get working on your request. Look out for an email from the library on the status of your request. If anything cannot be made available, we will also let you know at this time.
More Questions?
Contact ereserves@mail.fresnostate.edu with any additional questions about E-Reserves. We can also troubleshoot, help you make decisions about materials not listed on this page, or materials that may fall outside the scope of this service.