University Library > Services > Course Reserves

ERes FAQ for Faculty

ERes has been the Library's official electronic reserve system since January, 2001. Please read on to learn more about how ERes improves teaching, learning and scholarship for faculty and students.

What are the advantages of electronic reserves?
ERes provides maximum availability of materials for SCU students enrolled in your classes. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any computer with a connection to the Internet. Students can say good-bye to missing pages, endless photocopying and overdue reserve fines. ERes also provides a way for faculty to communicate with students outside of class. Course pages can include announcements, faculty telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, office location, and hours …like a "mini-web site," only a lot easier to use.
What is the relationship between traditional hard-copy reserve and ERes?
All reserve documents that meet electronic reserve requirements can be scanned and uploaded to ERes. If requested by students in your class, we can also place a single copy of reproduced materials that meet electronic reserve requirements on traditional hard-copy reserve.

Items that are not eligible for reproduction or uploading to ERes (such as entire books or periodical issues that are not in the public domain), will continue to be placed on traditional hard-copy reserve. This includes either items owned by the Library or personal copies of the faculty.

If the quality of a reproduction prevents it from being uploaded to ERes, a link will be made from ERes to the hard-copy on reserve in the Library, and you will be immediately notified.

I don't have much experience with computers. What support will the Library offer?
The Library's reserve staff will provide as much support with ERes as each member of the faculty requires. Reserve staff will:
  • scan and/or upload documents to your course pages
  • create and help maintain ERes course pages
  • act as first-tier support for questions regarding ERes
  • redirect you to further resources for more complicated support questions

The goal is to provide assistance to every faculty member with an interest in using ERes.

How do I get started with ERes?
Each faculty member that uses ERes must have an individualized account, to which their individual course page(s) can be attached. You can fill out an ERes account request form and either bring or send it to the Reserve Department. Your username will be the same as your GroupWise username.

Course pages will be set to archive after the end of the quarter. Once you have a course page, please make sure it's kept up to date so that it doesn't get archived. Each individual course page should also be protected by unique passwords so only current students in each class have access to them.

I know I'll have plenty of questions. What is the best way to contact the Reserve Department?
You may contact course reserve staff by phone at extension 5240 or e-mail, libraryreserve@scu.edu.
You may also stop by the Circulation Desk and request that material be put on course reserve. Circulation Desk staff will show you where the Reserves Desk is located.

If a question arises regarding your submitted reserve materials (e.g., lost or incomplete materials, books on search or recall, delays in processing, etc.), a member of the Reserve Department will need to contact you. Please be sure to check your GroupWise e-mail regularly. If you want us to contact you at another e-mail address, please provide this address with your your request forms that you submit. E-mail is sometimes the only way, we have of communicating with many instructors, especially adjunct faculty.

I'm ready to have a document put on ERes. How do I prepare it?
For each individual item you wish to place on reserve, please:
  • for new course pages or old pages that need to be updated, include an ERes Course Page Maintenance form and a Fair Use Checklist with your documents
  • provide a full citation including author, title and source (requests for scanning without a full citation will be put on hold until staff can contact you)
  • If the course page you want to add the document to is already current and updated, you may use the Reserve Request form and check the box next to "Add to Eres"
In order to successfully scan and upload the document to ERes, the original must be clear, one-sided and loose leaf. Please do not staple or tape the pages. Letter, legal can all be scanned, but it is easiest if all the pages in a given document are the same size.

If the quality isn't satisfactory, a link will be made from ERes to the hard-copy on reserve in the Library, and you will be notified.

I had an ERes course page for my class last quarter and it's no longer there. Has it been deleted?
No. ERes has a visibility date feature that makes it possible to submit your electronic reserves only once, no matter how infrequently you include them in your curriculum. ERes course pages are set to be automatically archive a week or so after the end of the quarter. When you log into ERes through the admin login you will be able to view and update your materials.
I know copyright is an issue, especially on the Internet. Who is responsible for making sure my electronic reserves comply with copyright law?
The use of reproductions of periodical articles, book chapters, etc., that are not in the public domain, is governed by the Fair Use provisions of the U. S. Copyright Law [sections 107 through 118 of the copyright act (title 17, U.S. Code)] and its supporting interpretations. Multiple copies of copyrighted material may be made for classroom use within certain requirements of brevity, spontaneity and cumulative effect.

The library will assume that faculty members who submit reproductions for reserve use have prepared them within the terms of Fair Use. Faculty claiming fair use and requesting library staff to place materials on course reserve must complete and submit one Fair Use Checklist for each group of materials they deliver to the library. A checklist must be completed each term that the copyrighted materials are used. Faculty who place materials online themselves, or who have assistants, students or others place such materials online for them, are advised to complete the checklist and retain it for three years.

If you determine that written permission must be obtained, you may write directly to copyright holder requesting such permission. Alternatively, library staff will try to assist you in obtaining such clearance if it is available through the Copyright Clearance Center.

For more information on copyright, fair use and ERes, the University has produced the Copyright and the Electronic Reserve System tutorial.

If you have a compliance problem or need clarification, don't hesitate to contact the Reserve Department.

What can I do to help provide the best and fastest service possible?

  • Please allow at least three days processing time, longer at the beginning of each quarter when we are busiest.

  • Please do not drop off reserve materials, especially urgently needed ones, without seeing a Circulation Department supervisor or one of the Reserve Department student assistants.

  • Please provide a syllabus to help us prioritize your reserves and to catalog them more accurately.

  • Please make sure that complete citations are included for all material that you want to place on ERes.
  • Please do not submit student papers to be posted online without written consent of the student.