Beginning June 5th, new carpet will be installed on the 2nd floor of the Mary Idema Pew Library near the book stacks. Books will still be available, but likely will be shifted and out of order during the installation. If you need a book during this time, Place a Hold to have our staff pull the book for you.

Course Reserve

The University Libraries offers support to faculty who wish to add readings from the library's collections.

Electronic Course Reserves

Electronic Reserves in Blackboard

You can add electronic reserve items to your Blackboard course as links or PDFs. We recommend using links. Linking to resources ensures that you stay in copyright compliance and also allows the library to collect accurate usage statistics for our databases. Adding PDFs will not allow the library to see any usage from your reserves. (Resources with little to no use may be canceled.)

We have created a series of guides to help you find the permanent links to resources from our licensed databases. To make sure that students can access your linked resources from both on and off campus, use our Link Fixer to create links that will route them through GVSU's authentication system.

Converting print textbooks to electronic textbooks is sometimes not possible because of publisher licensing. We can help you find electronic textbook alternatives to your print reserves.

Copyright and Fair Use

Material can be added to your Blackboard Course if the purpose, nature, and the effect of the request meets the reasonable limit of fair use. Instructors are asked to accept full responsibility in complying with the provisions of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 that governs 'fair use' of copyrighted objects for educational purposes when placing items in Blackboard.

Need help determining if something is covered by copyright? Use the Copyright Genie.

Need help determining if your item falls within "fair use?" Use the University Libraries' Fair Use Checklist.

Electronic Course Reserve Assistance

As of Fall 2020, the University Libraries is no longer managing electronic reserves for faculty. Adding links from the library databases to your Blackboard course is the easiest and quickest way to set up electronic reserves. We have created a series of guides to help you add items to your Blackboard course, and you can get in touch with your liaison librarian to find appropriate readings for your course.

We can help you with copyright compliance questions and help finding appropriate links to our licensed material. Unfortunately due to staffing, we are no longer able to scan materials or place items in Blackboard for you.

Physical Course Reserves

The University Libraries has resumed limited physical material Course Reserve support. Evaluation will now be determined by data-driven criteria for repeat reserve requests. All first-time requests will be honored. Exceptions will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We encourage you to work with the liaison librarian in your subject area to find course material options.

The evaluation criteria will be as follows:

Requests will be limited to course required materials
A 5 check-out threshold will be used to determine future placement on reserve.
The total number of materials available on reserve for a given course will be limited to 10 items.
Cataloging personal items is no longer sustainable. We would be happy to consider a purchase of the material that you need to add to the library collection.
In lieu of placing DVDs on reserve, we encourage you to work with the liaison librarian in your subject area to find streaming options.

Request Items on Physical Course Reserve