Niagara University Library: Reserve Services

Niagara University Library
Reserve Services

Faculty of Niagara University may place books, articles, computer files or other course material on reserve at the Library. Books on reserve will be maintained at the Circulation Desk. All other material will be placed on the Library's Electronic Reserve web server (http://niagara.docutek.com). This allows students access to material from any computer, 24 hours per day.

Reserve Guidelines For Faculty

To place items on reserve, contact Jonathan Coe, Coordinator of Public Services, at jcoe@niagara.edu or 716-286-8005. You may wish to download a Microsoft Word file of the Electronic Reserve/Copyright Compliance Form.

The following information is required for reserve:

Your name, course title, course number with section, your phone number and e-mail address.
The complete bibliographic citation for each item.

Instructors usually provide us with copies of items to be placed on reserve. We can photocopy articles if you have a citation. If you need a book that the Library does not own, we will attempt to order it.

It generally takes 24-48 hours to process reserve material. It may take longer at the beginning of the semester. Please allow enough time to ensure that material will be available when students need it.

You will be given a password that allows you and your students to access Electronic Reserve material. Print reserve items may be checked out for two hour intervals from the Circulation Desk with an NU ID.

Copyright Restrictions

The concept of "fair use" governs whether the Library can accept photocopied items for reserve. In particular the Library considers the following two factors as described in the U.S. Copyright Law:

"The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole."

"The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

(17 U.S.C. Section 107)

A great deal of debate has occurred as to the practical implications of this wording but a number of guidelines have become commonly accepted by libraries:

No more than 10% of the content of a single journal issue or book may be copied for reserve.
Reserve readings should meet standards of "brevity, spontaneity, and cumulative effect" and should function as "supplemental readings."
Articles placed on reserve cannot serve as de facto anthologies or course packs. Nor can reserve be used to substitute for the purchase of article reprints.
Consumable works such as workbooks or test booklets cannot be placed on reserve.

Removal of Material From Reserve

Before the end of each semester, you will receive a letter indicating what you have on reserve and asking which items should remain on reserve. Please note that repeated use of copyrighted material requires permission from the copyright holder, which we will ask you to provide. If you would like to see usage statistics for your reserve material, please contact Jonathan Coe at jcoe@niagara.edu.