How to Place Materials on Reserve: Guidelines for Instructors
Engineering and Physical Sciences Library
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Library normally handles course reserve materials for the following areas:
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ASTRO
METO
MATH
MAPL
ENGIN (all)
PHYS
CMSC
GEOL
STAT
Reserve items for courses in other academic disciplines may be more appropriately held in another Library, but faculty who believe EPSL is the appropriate location may request that their materials be held here.
Guidelines Applicable to All Course Reserves
Required Readings: Only required readings for courses are accepted at EPSL Please note: Over 40% of the materials placed on course reserve are never used by students; please do not ask us to place books on reserve unless you are going to assign readings from these items. Otherwise, these books are needlessly being withheld from users who may wish to charge them out.
Loan Period: The loan period for all reserve materials is two hours. Items checked out less than two hours before closing time are due before closing time. There are no overnight loans.
Periodicals: EPSL will not place library copies of journals on reserve. However, personal copies supplied by faculty may be placed on reserve. Requests for photocopied articles should be sent to McKeldin Reserves.
Personal Copies: Faculty and graduate teaching assistants may place personal copies of books, journals, etc. on course reserve. Please note that while the Library exercises strict security on these items, we are not responsible for damage or loss of personal copies.
Photocopied Book Chapters, Journal Articles: This material should be sent to McKeldin Library Reserves, where the pages will be scanned and processed. Professors will receive a password and instructions so their students can access this material online.
Class Notes, Homework Solutions: If there are extenuating circumstances requring that this type of material be available in paper format in EPSL (only--the choice is online or paper, not both), and this is not copyrighted material, we will accept it at EPSL.
There are NO Permanent Reserves: Items placed on reserve remain on reserve for the entire semester, unless the instructor picks them up. At the end of each semester, all items are removed from reserves; owners should claim personal copies as soon as possible after the last effective use date. The instructor must resubmit a new request list to reactivate any or all material on reserve from a previous semester.
Processing: If you wish to have your course material available by the first day of class, you should submit your list at least two weeks in advance. Due to the large volume of requests received at the beginning of each semester, submitting a list late may result in a significant delay in obtaining and processing materials for the course.
a) Lists should contain all relevant information: authors, titles, and call numbers of books owned by the Libraries. Items already in circulation will be recalled, but usually require two to three weeks to retrieve.
b) Books not owned by any College Park Library may be ordered, but this process usually takes at least three months. We may not place materials owned by another UMS library (UMBC, etc.) on reserve.
Reserve lists with incomplete or erroneous information will delay processing your course reserve materials. Library staff may return such lists to the requester to obtain more information. To ensure that your reserve materials are available in a timely fashion, please take the time to fill out your request list completely, and submit it well in advance of the time when these materials are needed by your students. Faculty may use the Online Reserve Request Form to place items on reserve.
Please feel free to contact the circulation staff of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library at 301-405-9140 if you have any questions about our course reserve policies and procedures.
