Course Reserves Frequently Asked Questions

A print reserve is a physical copy of a book that is held behind the Information and Assistance Desk at Boatwright and has a short check-out period. Professors place books on reserve in order to give students equal access to in-demand material. Both library books and professor-owned books can be placed on reserve.

Placing books on reserve gives students equal access to in-demand materials. For example, professors can place their personal copy of an expensive or heavy textbook on reserve for their students to use at the library. Professors can also place a selection of books on reserve that will be highly useful for their students’ research. Any time that you want multiple students to be able to have equal access to a single book, using our print reserve service is a great option.

The possible check-out periods are: 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 1 day and 3 days. 2 hours is the default, so if you do not indicate a preferred check-out period on your request form, your reserves will be set to a 2 hour check-out period. If you’d like to choose a different option, please indicate this in the special instructions section of the reserve request form.

The "title as listed on syllabus" field on the reserve request form allows you to ensure that the display title of the e-reserve matches how you’ve titled the reading on your syllabus. If the "title as listed on syllabus" field is filled out, our staff will use what has been entered there as the title of the e-reserve. If this field is not filled out, we will title the e-reserve to match the name of the article or chapter, or will choose another suitable name as necessary. For example, if your syllabus lists a reading as "Moby Dick: Chapter 1," it’s a good idea to enter this in the "title as listed on syllabus" field. Otherwise, your students might not know to look for the reading under "L" for "Loomings."

A media reserve is a physical copy of a DVD, Blu-ray, VHS, or audiobook that is held behind the information and Assistance Desk at Boatwright and has a short check-out period. Professors place media on reserve in order to give students equal access to in-demand material. Both library media and professor-owned media can be placed on reserve. The check-out period for media reserves is 4 hours in order to allow students enough time to view feature-length films.

Yes, physical copies of movies can be put on reserve in Boatwright or Parsons Music Library. To learn about options for putting music on reserve, please contact Linda Fairtile, the Head of Parsons Music Library, at lfairtil@richmond.edu.

Yes. For e-reserves, choose "yes" in the "Reactivating" field of the reserve request form. Please be aware that when e-reserves are reused by the same professor for the same course, copyright permission may need to be acquired and the reserve request may take longer than usual. For print reserves, just provide the book citation on the reserve request form.

Articles available through library databases can be posted as e-reserves by linking directly to the article in the database. Please see the procedures section on the reserves home page for instructions on permalinks.

Yes, however, we always prefer to scan from an original source if possible. Scanning from an original ensures the highest quality scan and the greatest legibility. Scanning from a photocopy reduces the quality of the scan and can decrease legibility.

Yes. The library generally does not purchase text books, but personal copies of text books may be placed on reserve.

Please contact your liaison librarian to discuss book purchasing. Please be aware that book purchase and delivery can take several weeks.

There are several reasons why we ask for a separate reserve request form for each item. First, the information on reserve request forms helps us decide whether or not we need to apply for copyright permission for each reading. If we do apply for copyright permission, having the citation information for the reading is essential. Also, our workflow procedures require that multiple people handle different portions of the reserves process. Reserve request forms help us keep everything straight as items move around the department.

Self-population of fields is not a feature that is currently available with URPoster, the form processor for all University of Richmond web sites. Keep in mind that professor name, course name, and date needed are the only required fields on the form. Email, telephone number etc. are useful, but not required.

Please view our Copyright Guidelines. If you have questions, please contact the reserves department.

Copyright permission requests can take several weeks. If your requests will require copyright permission, please allow several extra weeks of processing time. If you have questions, please refer to our copyright guidelines.

Please view our course reserve deadlines on the reserve home page. Be aware that books that need to be ordered and e-reserves that need copyright permission may take several weeks longer to process.

Personal books will be returned as soon as they have been processed. For estimated processing times please see the deadlines portion of the course reserve home page. If you need your book back by any certain date, please note this in the special instructions box on the reserve request form.

At this time, due to the volume of requests that we receive, we are unable to provide individual notices when reserves are ready. You can always check the reserves portion of the library website to verify your reserves. If you would like a status update on any of your reserves, feel free to contact the library staff member in charge of course reserves.