Placing Articles or Book Chapters on Electronic Reserve

General Guidelines

Under appropriate circumstances, electronic scans created from books or journal issues owned by the Grinnell College Libraries, other College departments, or the instructor may be used for course reserves readings.

If the College has licensed electronic access to an article, a link will be created through the course reserve list in the Libraries' catalog. Copies of the electronic file will not be downloaded into the electronic reserve system.

Copies or scans created from journal issues or books that are not owned by the Grinnell College Libraries, other College departments, or the instructor may be used in course reserve only with permission of the copyright owner and payment of any requisite fee. Fair use does not apply in such cases.

In cases where Fair Use does not apply, the Libraries are responsible for requesting copyright permission on behalf of the College and the instructor. Copyright royalty payments are limited to $150 for an individual item or a cumulative total of $1000 for all the items on reserve for a particular course. Charges in excess will be the responsibility of the instructor, the department, or the concentration. Exceptions may be requested from the Librarian of the College.

Considerations Regarding "Fair Use" and Copyright

Reserve requests should be made through the Electronic Reserve Request Form. The Libraries work closely with Academic Support Assistants  in completing faculty requests for course reserve. In general, the Support Assistants are responsible for copying and scanning course reserve materials and delivering those to the Library, while the Library is responsible for researching and managing copyright clearances, checking for online availability of requested texts, posting files in the electronic reserve system, and creating index entries. Faculty with electronic reserve requests should generally initiate those requests with their support assistants. Please keep in mind the following considerations:

  • The source of the reproduction must be "lawfully owned."  Lawfully owned sources include:
    • Library-owned copies of books and journal issues.
    • Instructor-owned copies of books and journal issues.
  • The reproduction will include either the original copyright notice or -- if there is no notice published in the item -- a generic copyright warning: "This material may be protected by copyright. Further dissemination is prohibited."
  • The reproduction will represent a small proportion of the whole copyrighted work.  Requests for amounts that exceed these guidelines will require copyright permission and (as determined by the copyright owner) payment of a royalty.
  • The duration of access will be limited: access to electronic copies will be removed at the end of the course and photocopies supplied by faculty will be returned by the end of the semester (or sooner if not needed for physical reserve).
  • Access to the reproduction will be limited to enrolled students of the course.
  • The Libraries will not reproduce or accept for print or electronic reserve works intended to be "consumable" in the course of studying or teaching such as published workbooks, exercises, standardized tests, test booklets and answer sheets. However, exercises, tests, and similar material created by the instructor may be copied and/or placed on Reserve at the instructor's request.

How to Request an Electronic Reserve

Before placing a request:

  • Make sure you have not already ordered this item.  Duplicate requests slow the entire process down.
  • Check to see if you are using an original source. Anthologies and compilations should have a notice of the original copyright source. If the professor has no preference, please use an original source whenever possible.
  • Double check the book title, article title, and page numbers.
  • Match the article title to the dropbox title.

Use the Electronic Reserve Request Form. Refer to instructions below to complete the form:

  • Date needed by: Please give us two weeks to process and acquire permission for the item if at all possible.
  • Course number: Please be sure to add the department along with the course number. Some professors teach two or more disciplines, and we need to ensure that every item goes on the correct course list. If you have more than one professor teaching the same course, different sections and want to request permission for the same articles [if possible] please try to send the individual requests on the same day. This will help us in contacting rights holders directly.
  • Number of students: We cannot process e-reserves without knowing how many people will have access to the articles. Generally, permission is paid for per page, per student. If you are unsure of how many students will ultimately be a part of the course, use your best guess and we can adjust this number when class is in session.
  • Title of chapter or article: We try to use this title exactly when placing items on e-reserve. Please double check the spelling in this field so that no errors transfer to confuse the students. This should also be part of the title in the dropbox for ease of location. There should be one title per pdf in the dropbox. Please do not try to request more than one e-reserve per request form.
  • Author: This is the author or editor you wish to have show up on the course reserves list. Again, please double check your spelling for errors that might confuse the students. It is a good idea to put the author’s name before the article title as the dropbox file name.
  • Title of Book or Journal: This is an important piece of information, as we often use this to determine who holds copyright information.
  • Publisher name: The publisher is generally found on the title page or the back of the title page. There are many times when several publishers have a book of the same title, and so this can be a vital piece of obtaining permission for a specific work.
  • ISBN / ISSN: (International Standard Book Number / International Standard Serial Number) These numbers can be found most often on the title page (for journals) or the back of the title page (for journals and books). Some older books will not have an ISBN. ISBNs are either 10 or 13 numbers long. ISSNs are generally 8 numbers long (xxxx-xxxx). If at all possible, please include this field. This is perhaps the most time-saving field among the list.
  • Volume: (for journals) If you do not have a date of issue, this field is vital to find the source information.
  • Issue: Please add if known.
  • Page numbers: We cannot process an e-reserve without this information. PDF files should contain only pages that are part of the required reading. Extra pages must be paid for. Please remember that we can process no more than 25% of the total number of pages for any item.
  • Date: Please add the year of publication. This is now required by the Copyright Clearance Center for an item to be processed by them. The year of publication is generally found on the back of the title page.
  • Edition: This field is optional.
  • Article is: Please determine whether this is first-time use (the first time an article from this source has been used by this professor for this course), or used before (this article has been used by this professor for this course in the past).
  • Deposited in circ drop box: Unless the article is accessible through a full-text database or website, please ensure that the article is available for this professor/course in an easily found manner in the dropbox. The preferred naming convention is “Author_TitleOfArticle.” In Adobe, please ensure that you rotate pages before saving so that the article can be read on the computer screen if so desired. If you have questions regarding how to do this, please let us know.
  • Source of scanned document: Please be accurate with this. If you indicate the item is owned by the library and it is not, the library will have to pay copyright fees, regardless of whether it should be first-time use or not. An accurate answer here will go a long way to providing the e-reserve quickly and cheaply.
  • URL: If the item is found in our online databases, this is not a required field. If, however, the professor has a website that should be read, or a full-text source which is open to the public, this can be placed here. Professors with personal subscriptions to online databases cannot link e-reserves through their course reserve list. The item will have to be ordered and placed on e-reserve as a pdf file.
  • Notes: Please use this field to provide information that you feel is important, but doesn’t fit into one of the other categories.