Policies at the Library

Getting Started with Reserves

Reserves are books, DVDs, articles, or other materials a professor selects to make available in the library or in canvas for their students to use.

• Physical reserves materials, like books or DVDs, are kept at the circulation desk and may be borrowed by students with an active library card.
• e-Reserves, like articles and book chapters, are uploaded to Canvas, allowing students to access them from anywhere. 

Contact reserves@framingham.edu to place materials on reserve. If you have further questions, please contact Lori Wolfe at lwolfe1@framingham.edu.

3 Types of Reserves

Closed Reserve: 

• Items may only be used in the library and may only be kept for up to two hours at a time. If an item is not returned within the two-hour lending period, fines could be imposed.
• Students must leave their ID at the Circulation desk until the reserve item is returned. 
• No more than two reserve items may be signed out at a time.
• The majority of items are on closed reserve.

Overnight Reserve: 

• Materials may be used for up to two hours at a time during the day for use within the library.  After 4 PM the items on overnight reserve may be taken from the building, but must be returned by 10 AM the next morning. 
• On weekends the materials may be signed out at noon on Friday and are due back by 10 AM Monday. 
• Few, if any, materials are on overnight reserve.

e-Reserve:

• Journal articles or chapters of books are scanned into a PDF version and placed in the e-Reserve portion of Canvas. 
• Professors can link to these materials from within their Canvas course site making them available to students logged into Canvas.
• e-Reserves are only available for the duration of the current semester.

Reserves Policy @ Whittemore Library

Materials which may be placed on Reserve without obtaining copyright permission:

• Exams
• Lecture notes
• Items in the public domain (due to expired copyright; or due to copyright exemption, as with most federal government publications)
• Items with open licenses that grant permission for your specific use (like most Creative Commons licenses)
• Items used in accordance with fair use of US Copyright law

Portions of copyrighted materials that may be photocopied or scanned and placed on electronic reserve:

• A chapter from a book
• An article from a periodical or newspaper
• A short story, essay, or short poem
• A chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper

Copyrighted materials that may not be photocopied or scanned and placed on reserve:

• Pages from works intended to be "consumable" in course of study or teaching. These include workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, test booklets and answer sheets.
• An entire book, whether in print or out-of-print

Length of time photocopied/scanned materials may be on reserve:

• Photocopies of copyrighted materials may be placed on reserve one semester only without permission.
• If the instructor wishes to keep these materials on reserve for more than one consecutive semester, permission from the copyright holder must be requested. Once the request has been made the material can remain on reserve pursuant to the copyright holder's response. If permission is not granted then the material must be taken off reserve.

When copyright permission is needed:

• To place any materials on reserve for consecutive semesters.
• To place (a) multiple articles from one issue of a journal or (b) multiple chapters from a book on reserve during the same semester, provided fair use would not be an adequate claim for these materials.

Placing personal items on reserve:

• Faculty may leave personal items to be place on Library Reserve with the understanding that if these items are not returned library staff will make every effort to recover them, but are not responsble for replacing them.

How do I Place Items on Reserve?

1. Physical books and photocopies may be placed on reserve by faculty only in order to facilitate their use for specific assignments.  Personal items belonging to the instructor may be placed on reserve.  The instructor may request these items to be sensitized for the security system. Items owned by another library can not be placed on reserve.

2.  All items placed on reserve must conform to US Copyright Law (Title 17).  Please refer to the library's copyright resources for more information.

3.  Materials are only kept on reserve for one semester at a time.  All reserve items will be removed at the end of each semester.  No reserve items will be held from semester to semester. 

4.  Copyright permission must be obtained for reserve items that will be used in subsequent semesters.

5.  The Library will obtain copyright clearance for items to be placed on reserve.  If copyright can not be obtained or the cost is too prohibitive, the item will not be placed on reserve and the instructor will be notified.

6.  Each semester, professors will need to submit a reserve request by emailing reserves@framingham.edu or Lori Wolfe at lwolfe1@framingham.edu. Students are not allowed to place materials on reserve for their instructor.

7.  For print reserves, no more than two copies of an article or book chapter may be put on reserve.  If more copies are needed, copyright permission must be obtained. 

8.  Only journal articles and book chapters will be placed on e-Reserves.  Professors will need to provide the library with clean copies of any materials that will be scanned for e-Reserves.  e-Reserves are part of canvas and instructors wanting items placed in e-Reserves will need to make the items available to the student through the course site.  For more information about using Canvas or for assistance in linking to the e-Reserve items, please contact Educational Technology Office.

9.  Journal articles that are available in full-text through the library databases will not be placed on reserve.  Instructors can provide the links to the students.

10.  The Library will inform the instructor when reserve items are available and the instructor will need to inform students of what has been placed on reserve, as we have no knowledge of course assignments or requirements.