Electronic Reserves: a Guide for Instructors

General Guidelines | E-Reserve Copyright Policy | General Policies | What Can be Placed on Electronic Reserve? | What CanNOT be Placed on Electronic Reserve? | To Submit Materials for E-Reserves | Submission Deadlines | Removing Materials from Reserve |

Course Reserves Form

General Guidelines

The Electronic Reserve Collection at UW-La Crosse Murphy Library consists of non-copyright and copyrighted materials and links to web sites for courses taught at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The collection is accessible 24 hours a day through the Murphy Library web site.

All electronic reserve materials are now accessed off-campus through a Proxy server. This means that students must enter their UW-L email username and password before the e-reserve page appears.

To access the collection, users will need an Internet connection, an Internet browser such as Internet Explorer, and Adobe Reader. Most campus labs and all library computers with Internet access have Internet Explorer and Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is a free program and may be downloaded from the Electronic Reserve Collection web page using your Internet browser. Contact the ITS Support Center at 785-8774 for assistance.

E-Reserve Copyright Policy

The library policy for electronic reserve reading services is derived from the fair use provisions of United States Copyright Act of 1976. Section 107 of the Copyright Act expressly permits the making of multiple copies for classroom use.

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 706 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include--

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use
is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted
work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. (17 USCA 107, current through P. L. 106-580, approved 12/29/00)

Murphy Library’s collections as well as the collections of other University of Wisconsin libraries are purchased for the nonprofit educational use of students and faculty. All library materials are acquired with the understanding that there will be multiple uses of a limited number of copies. The purpose of the electronic reserve system will be to supplement course readings and facilitate the making of multiple copies for classroom use by students. Considered within this context, electronic reserve services can be developed by UW La Crosse and other UW System libraries in a manner that conforms to the plain language of the fair use provisions of the copyright law.

The electronic copying and scanning of copyright-protected works for library reserve service are unsettled areas of the law which may be addressed by the Supreme Court or in future revisions of the copyright law. Therefore, the preceding statement and the following general policies are subject to change. Any changes in this policy will be posted on the library’s web pages.

General Policies

• All use of materials placed on electronic reserve will be at the initiative of faculty solely for the non-commercial, educational usage of students enrolled in their courses.
• Copyrighted electronic reserves are password protected.
• Copyright notice will appear on screen in the online reserve system and on copies made of reserve readings to indicate that materials may be covered by copyright law.
• Materials on reserve will be accessible only by faculty name, course name, and course number.
• The library will not place materials on electronic reserve if it judges that the nature, scope, or extent of the material is beyond the reasonable limits of fair use.
• Longer works, such as complete books, will not be copied for electronic reserve service.
• Users may make one copy for private study, personal reading, research, scholarship or education.
• Electronic files will be removed from access on the system at the conclusion of the course.
• The library reserves the right to place the item on regular reserve rather than E-reserve
  

What Can Be Placed On Electronic Reserve?

•  Electronic reserve systems may include short items (such as an article from
  journal, a chapter from a book or conference proceedings, or a poem from a collected work).
• Instructor-authored material--syllabi, sample tests, lecture notes, etc.
• An article available from an electronic database which the library subscribes to (we may be able to directly link to it—call the Circulation Desk for more information at 785-8507).
• A link to a page on the instructor's or the department's web site.
• The total amount of material included in electronic reserve systems for a specific course as a matter of fair use should be a small proportion of the total assigned reading for a particular course.
• Student papers if the faculty member has obtained & submitted written permission from the student. Student Paper Release Form
• Lengthy documents may be split into several files in order to decrease download times for users.

What CanNOT Be Placed On Electronic Reserve?

• Coursepacks
• Consumables intended for one-time use (i.e. workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and test booklets, answer sheets, etc)
• More than one article from the same issue of a journal or newspaper
• More than one chapter from the same book (except when several chapters represent a small portion of the entire work)
• An entire book or play
• Electronic reserve systems should not include any material unless the instructor, the library, or another unit of the educational institution possesses a lawfully obtained copy.
• In addition, audio clips, video clips or art displays will not currently be placed on electronic reserve.

Murphy Library reserves the right to refuse to place an item on reserve (paper or electronic) if we believe doing so violates the fair use principles of copyright law.

To Submit Materials for E-Reserves

Submit a reserve list (forms are available on-line & at the circulation desk) with the following information:

1. Instructor name
2. Department and course number
3. Preferred title of items

Material for the Electronic Reserve Collection may be submitted in a variety of formats.

Paper format:

*Copies of lecture notes, exams, course syllabi, and problem solutions may be mailed or delivered to the Circulation Desk.
*Copies must be on white paper with one inch margins. Typed materials should be in a clear font of 12 point or larger. Copy on one side only.
*Materials will be scanned by library staff as text or image files, so clean, legible copies are essential.
*It is HIGHLY recommended that documents contain no more than ten pages, thus large manuals should be broken down into sections or chapters.
*Provide a complete citation to all materials. For articles, provide: author, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number (if available), page numbers and date published. For books, provide: author, title, publisher, place of publication and publication date. The library cannot legally accept items of uncertain origin.

Materials submitted in paper format will also be placed on traditional reserves.

Floppy disks:

*Floppy disks may be submitted if the documents are presented in ASCII text, Word, Word Perfect, or HTML.
*Both IBM and Macintosh disks will be accepted, but Mac disks will require extra time for processing.
*Material on floppy disks may be mounted as text files or as image files.
*Provide a complete citation to all materials. For articles, provide: author, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number (if available), page numbers and date published. For books, provide: author, title, publisher, place of publication and publication date. The library cannot legally accept items of uncertain origin.

E-mail:

*Text documents or files may be transmitted via e-mail to cirser@uwlax.edu.

Adding a Web site reference:

*Such sites may include faculty home pages, ftp documents, and remote files.
*A request for adding a web site listing must include the URL and title of the site.
*Submit this information via e-mail to cirser@uwlax.edu, to the Circulation Desk in person, or through campus mail.

Submission Deadlines

Reserve requests may be submitted at any time, and will be processed as quickly as possible in the order in which they are received. We encourage instructors to submit lists and materials well before the start of each semester.

At the beginning of the semester, when requests are numerous, it may take up to one week to process materials. At all other times we request a minimum of 2 to 3 days to process new materials. We cannot guarantee that materials will be processed over the weekend. Students should not expect materials to be available immediately after a request has been submitted.

Removing Materials from E-Reserves

Links will remain active only during those semesters in which the course is offered. Before the end of each semester instructors are contacted as to their wishes for the next term. Paper copies will be returned to instructors. Electronic copies will be maintained by the library.

Instructors who wish to acquire electronic files of scanned materials may download files directly from the Electronic Reserve Collection web page once processing is complete. Please remember that image files use a large amount of disk space.