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Course Reserves: Faculty Information

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Reserves are required course materials that are made available to all students in a class. 

  • Physical reserves have a loan period of four hours so that students have equal access to these resources. 
  • Electronic reserves include e-books, digitized films, book chapters and journal articles.

Reserves staff work with the acquisitions department to order any materials not yet owned by the Libraries, when possible.

How to Submit Reserves Requests

The deadline for Fall 2023 course reserves is Monday, August 14, 2023. Requests sent before this date should be substantially available by the start of classes.

To submit a reserves request there are two options:

  • Email libraryreserves@smith.edu and attach a copy of your syllabus as a Word document (preferred)
    • Include the course code (ex.: ENG 118) in the subject line.
    • If you prefer, you can attach a document or spreadsheet of required items instead of a syllabus.
    • Please include author and title information for each item. Include additional information such as page numbers, journal volume or edition if it is needed to identify the correct item.
  • OR: Submit your requests through the online Reserves Request Form

Reserves staff will ask for clarification if more information is needed.

Limitations

  • Course reserves links on Moodle will not automatically roll over each semester with your new course site.
  • Requests will be processed in the order they are received. Please allow two weeks for a list to be processed. If the list contains materials not yet owned by the Libraries, availability of those items depends on when they arrive and are processed.
  • The library is not able to purchase material from streaming media services such as Netflix or Hulu.
  • Publishers and vendors set limitations on e-books. Not all books are available as e-books. Some e-books (such as for Kindle) are only available for personal use and not under a library license. Others are available only under single-user licenses, which prevents multiple students from being able to access a title at the same time.
  • Reserves are subject to copyright regulations. For book excerpts, we scan up to 10% of the total page count or one chapter, whichever is greater. (Exceptions may be made in special circumstances on a case-by-case basis, such as if the book is out of print or the rights holder has granted permission.)

Types of Reserves

Single-User E-Books

To tell whether an e-book is available for unlimited users, multiple users, or only one user at a time, go to the catalog record for the e-book. If an e-book is available only for a limited number of users at a time, this information will be listed under the Concurrent User Level section.

E-book record showing single user access

 

Loan Periods for E-Books

  • EBSCO: the load period is currently 3 hours.
  • ProQuest: the user can choose 1 day, 7 days, 14 days, or 21 days to check out an e-book.
  • Internet Archive: the loan period is 1 hour. These items are not owned by Smith and they cannot be found using Discover. You will need to create a free Internet Archive account to borrow Internet Archive e-book copies (see the terms of use).

Printing and Downloading E-Books

Publisher permissions around how many pages can be printed, emailed or saved vary by book. This information is displayed at the top of the landing page for each book.

Returning E-Books

Please see our FAQ for returning e-books.

Streaming Platforms Supported by the Libraries

The Libraries subscribe to a number of media streaming platforms. See Find DVDs & Videos for more information.

DVDs

  • If possible, we provide a link to a streaming version of a video, but this is not always possible.
  • If there is a DVD copy, reserves staff can digitize it and make it available through a Smith login. Simply include the title in your reserves list and it will be added to the course e-reserve list.
  • Please understand that we need one week of notice for streaming DVDs on site at Smith College, one to two weeks for items currently available in other Five College libraries (Mount Holyoke, UMass, Amherst and Hampshire), and at least two weeks for newly ordered items.
  • If the video has a title in a foreign language, please provide the original title as well as the English title. This helps us find the right item.
  • For foreign-language videos, let us know if you prefer subtitles in English or the original language.

Media Captioning

All English-language video will include captions. Foreign-language video will have subtitles or captions as they are available depending on the instructor’s preferences. We cannot provide English translations as subtitles when these are not available on the DVD.

Accessing E-Reserves

Electronic reserves are available for the duration of the course with a Smith login. Each Moodle course also contains a link to the e-reserves for that course.

Search E-Reserves Find e-reserves by course number, name or instructor
Moodle Log in using Smith Network username and password

Accessing Physical Reserves

To see the physical reserves for a course, enter the course code in the search box above, or in the Discover tab on the Libraries home page. Each Moodle course also contains a link to the physical reserves for that course.

Accessibility

The Libraries make every reasonable effort to ensure that all instructional materials are accessible. Submitting course materials to the reserves team allows us to make sure that all materials can be used by all students to the fullest extent possible. Please see the college's web page Accessible Instructional Materials for more information on how to make texts and media accessible to students. Learn more about accessibility on the ACRL website.

Frequently Asked Questions

See our FAQs for answers to questions about e-books, e-reserves, and more.

Contact Us

Email: libraryreserves@smith.edu
Call: 413-585-2910

For help with Moodle including usernames or passwords, please contact the IT Service Center at ithelp@smith.edu