Do you use supplemental material such as films, articles, books, or book chapters in your course? The library offers both electronic and physical reserve services to make available supplemental materials that represent a small portion of course materials. Please review the following information:


Faculty responsibilities:

1) Review Copyright - Fair Use Guidelines. Each request is also reviewed individually by library staff to determine adherence to copyright law as based upon four considerations:

  • purpose and character of the use
  • nature of the copyrighted work
  • amount and substantialityof the portion requested
  • effect of the use on the potential market or value of the copyrighted work

2) Allow up to 7 business days for reserve requests to be processed and made available, particularly during the busy time at the beginning of the semester. Often library staff are able to make reserve materials available sooner, but please allow 7 business days.

Due to limited space and staff time, we are unable to accept more than 30 physical reserves and 30 e-reserves per course.

3) Submit completed form(s) directly to Reserves@dbq.edu. Questions may be directed to Jaimie Shaffer, Circulation Supervisor (JBShaffe@dbq.edu, 563.589.3689, Library 100). Forms are available on the library's webpage and at the Circulation Desk near the main entrance.

4) Provide the following information using the Physical Reserve Request Form (for books and DVDs) or the E-Reserve Request Form (for articles, book chapters, films, and Films on Demand):

  • course number, course name, and instructor name.
  • a full citation as indicated on each form.
  • Specify edition, translation, or format requirements if you have them.
    * Note that it is not necessary to submit paper copies of materials, but this can expedite the process. Please add ;complete citation information to any photocopies prior to submitting. Also, copyright law forbids us from placing multiple copies of photocopied material on reserve. Generally, the law allows one copy per class.

5) If you would like to place an item on reserve that the library does not own, you may submit a personal copy. Any personal copies will be labeled, bar-coded and security-stripped. Contact the for your department well in advance so we may consider purchasing it.

6) To facilitate student access, we suggest that you list full citations of all reserve items on your syllabus.

7) Re-request materials each semester. To comply with copyright law, we remove items from reserve following each semester. Copyright law does not allow the library to place a scanned or copied item on reserve repeatedly without permission from the copyright holder.

Student access to e-reserves:

The library's e-reserves service allows students to access reserve readings of copyrighted material (if it complies with fair use) 24/7 online. This continues to be a very popular service, with students accessing e-reserves documents over 19,500 times in 2009-10!

E-reserves materials are available through Moodle. Once requests are processed (allow seven business days), students simply go to their Moodle page to access readings. If you do not have a Moodle page for a course but wish to use e-reserves, library staff will arrange for a course page to be set up for you. Instructions for accessing Moodle for both students and faculty are available. An e-reserves example on a Moodle page is available at Moodle-E-Reserves.

Student access to physical reserves:

Physical reserves (entire books, films, kits, etc.) are typically available for 2-hour, in library checkout, unless specified by instructor when the reserve request is submitted. This ensures that all students can access the material.

To access physical reserves, students should ask at the Circulation Desk for an item by providing their instructor's name and the title of the item. A full citation for each item in your syllabus will facilitate your students' requests. Reserve films are for in-library use only (except for faculty). Students may view reserve films in the Media Viewing Room (L207) or on any library computer using personal headphones.

If you have reserve questions, contact Jaimie Shaffer at 563.589.3689 or JBShaffe@dbq.edu. For copyright questions, contact Chris Doll at 563.589.3215 or CDoll@dbq.edu.

Faculty access to reserves:

Faculty access to e-reserves is the same as student access. For physical reserves such as books and films, faculty may check out reserve materials for use outside the library. Please return items promptly after each use. If items will be needed at a specific day/time (i.e a film for class viewing), this should be indicated in advance on the Physical Reserve Request Form or by notifying Reserves@dbq.edu.