Reserves are circulated at the Circulation Desk on the 4th floor. There is one Circulation staff member who works full-time in processing reserves. Approximately one month before the end of each semester, the Reserve Supervisor, Larentina Gray, sends a letter to faculty requesting their reserve lists for the next semester. A deadline date is given in the letter. Reserve lists received after the deadline date will be processed in order of receipt. To insure materials are processed by the time classes begin each semester, reserve lists need to be turned in at least one month before classes begin. Reserve services are also offered during the May term and summer school sessions.

There are two types of Reserve materials available in Central Library. Those are Print reserves and electronic reserves.

Electronic Reserves

Journal articles, old tests, homework solutions, or book chapters provided by the instructor can be made available electronically through OAK (Blackboard). OAK (Blackboard) is the electronic reserves system used and supported by the Heard Library System. All electronic reserves readings that the Library supplies are in a content area in the course page of OAK (Blackboard) called E-Reserves. Students really have enjoyed the convenience of remote access via OAK (Blackboard). Clean, unstapled, single-sided paper copies of the materials must be delivered to the library in person or by mail. Files on disk or CD can also be linked electronically.

When faculty request that Library staff place materials on either OAK (Blackboard), reserve staff will scan and link the items, provide the necessary security, and work with the Copyright Clearance Center to obtain any needed copyright permissions. Copyright costs will be charged back to the appropriate school. Whenever possible, full text or imaged articles will be linked through one of our licensed electronic resources or other web sites rather than scanning the document, thus avoiding copyright clearance costs. If copyright permissions are required, the materials will be scanned first and made available to the students while copyright permissions are being obtained The VU Copyright Clearance Center in the General Library Building will obtain these permissions. OAK (Blackboard) items on electronic reserves are only available to enrolled students in the class.

For more information about copyright requirements at VU, please visit their web site.

When library reserve staff are not involved in maintaining course pages, whether they are posted in OAK (Blackboard) or in other applications not supported by the library, faculty should work directly with the CCS. In addition, faculty are advised to consult with the dean of their school to confirm that the school has approved of copyright fee payment for electronic reserves.

To place items on Electronic Reserves instructors should submit a completed Electronic Reserve Form to the Circulation or Reserve department using the Online Request Form for Electronic Reserves or the Excel form, which should be submitted as an email attachment. Send the email attachment to cenres.library@vanderbilt.edu.

Print Reserves

Please complete the Reserve form available at the Reserve Desk or use the Web Form. If books are requested for reserve, Reserve staff will be happy to pull the books from our stacks. If it is a book owned by another Vanderbilt Library, we will get it sent to the Reserve Room. Any books requested for reserve that are not owned by the Library will be ordered with the exception of textbooks. If you do not want to make other readings available electronically, the Reserve Room will be happy to accept the photocopied materials provided and place them on print reserves. If requesting a journal article from a periodical volume that we don't own at Central, a photocopy will have to be supplied since most libraries will not send us their journals. If it is a journal article for a journal that we do own, we will be glad to put the periodical on reserve if you do not wish to provide a photocopy of the article. Materials such as old tests, homework solutions, book chapters, and journal articles should be supplied in manila folders. If material is over 1" thick, please supply a 3 ring binder for the materials. The recommended guideline is 1 copy on reserve for every 10 students in the class. Length of circulation options: Restricted (room use only), 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, overnight, 1 day, 3 days and 1 week. Current lists of the available print reserves may be searched by Instructor name, course name or course number in the Acorn catalog. The Reserve Room also maintains a paper list of materials on print reserve.

Video Reserves

Non-book materials such as CD-ROMs, CDs, Slides, Cassettes and Videos must be placed on reserve in the Government Info/Media Desk on the 4th floor. This facility has the equipment for the students to access this type of material. These materials can be placed on reserve using the Online Video Reserve Request Form.

Whether using print or electronic reserves, new lists must be submitted each semester. In the case of electronic reserves, copyright permissions are granted for one semester at a time only. Reserve lists and materials from previous semesters cannot be stored in the Reserve Room. Personal copies of books or articles placed on reserve for a semester need to be picked up by the last day of exams if possible. If that is not convenient and an alternate pickup time needs to be arranged or if there are any questions about placing materials on Reserve, call 615-322-6968 or 615-343-1141.