Hard Copy Reserves  |  Electronics Reserves (e-Reserves)

Materials may be placed on reserve (electronic or non-electronic) at the initiative of a Howard University professor solely for the non-commercial, educational use of HU students. Regular and e-reserve items will be removed after the end of each semester unless otherwise requested by the faculty and provided the faculty's request is in compliance with copyright laws. Submit a Reserve Request Form to your designated library at least 15 days before the beginning of the semester for which the material is intended. Requests are processed in the order of receipt. Complete and accurate forms are processed more rapidly.

Hard Copy Reserves

Non-electronics reserve formats may include:

Photocopies and copyright policy

Instructors must provide their own photocopies, which are then placed in numbered manila folders. Please refer to the Copyright & Reserves page and the general copyright information page, for details on what may or may not be placed on reserve if you have any question about an article's copyright viability. Instructors will determine if reserve readings are in compliance with fair use.

Books/media owned by Howard University Libraries

Library materials requested for reserve may be retrieved from the stacks by the library staff.

Personal copies

All personal copies placed on reserve will be labeled and barcoded. Staff takes all reasonable precautions to preserve personal materials on reserve.

Loan period

Indicate the length of the loan period for each item. Options include:

• 1, 2 or 3 hours at a time with the option for students to borrow for overnight use and return during the first hour of opening the following day.
• Other options include:
  • 1 hour, w or w/o overnight
  • 2 hours, w or w/o overnight
  • 3 hours, w or w/o overnight
  • 1 day
  • 2 days
  • 3 days
  • 14 days
    
    
• Please bring in materials to be placed on Reserve well in advance of student’s needs for them. Our goal is to process material in 24-48 hours but at peak times during the semester it may take longer to provide access to materials.

4 day/10 day turnaround

If the reserve form is complete, with all copyright signatures and materials are brought to the service desk, then the Library will have all materials on reserve within four business days. All other reserves will be processed within ten business days on a first-come-first-served basis.

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Electronics Reserves (e-Reserves)

The library offers an Electronic Reserves Service that supplements the traditional paper Course Reserves system. Access to e-reserves is restricted to Howard University faculty, staff, current students—campus and distance learners.

E-reserves service has several advantages:

• Web-based access to digitized objects as well as links to the faculty's online course syllabi
• 24 hours/seven/365 access
• Access from any computers with Internet connection, via HUnet or commercial ISPs (AOL, Comcast, MSN, ...)
• Multiple users can view the same materials simultaneously

Copyright policy

The following copyright statement will be attached to each e-reserve document: "This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code)."

Please refer to the Copyright & Reserves page, for details on what may or may not be placed on reserve.

Professors may submit digitized materials in any of the following formats

• HTML
• PDF
• MS Word (PC)

Other materials that may be linked to or placed in the e-reserve system

• Quizzes/Exams/Solutions (links only)
• Lecture notes
• Government publications (links only)
• Homework assignments (links only)
• Bibliography or faculty prepared lists
• Study guides prepared by faculty 

Copyright materials that may be placed in the e-reserve system for one semester without obtaining copyright permission include

• One chapter from a book
• One article from a periodical or newspaper
• A short story, essay, poem, whether or not from a collective work
• A chart, cartoon, drawing, graph or picture from a book, periodical or newspaper

Procedures for submitting requests for e-reserves

• Complete one “Reserve Request Form” for each course
• Submit the e-reserve “Reserve Request Form” to the appropriate library
• Provide all required data on the “Reserve Request Form”

To ensure highest quality electronic files at the smallest possible file size.

• Check online resources and databases first before submitting an article for scanning
• Submitted material must be printed on white 8.5 x 11 or 8.5 x 14 sheets
• Material should not contain:
  • Illegible text
  • Small text (under 10 points)
  • Smeared or distorted text
  • Blotches
  • Pasted on material
  • Dark areas (other than pertaining images)
  • Frayed edges, cutout material or staples
• Clear legible text on submitted material is vital for a good quality PDF file
• Text that is not readable when submitted will not be readable when scanned
• Full bibliographic information must be provided for all copyrighted material.
• The orientation of text should be the same on each page of the printed reserve. When photocopying material, place each page in the exact same spot on the copier, so that the information on each sheet will be in the exact same place on each subsequent sheet. This is necessary because during the digital scanning process only the areas containing information will be selected. When scanning multiple sheets, the selected area will apply to all sheets thus any information outside the selected area will be clipped. Clipped Information cannot be added to the resulting PDF file.
• Submitted reserve item should not exceed 32 pages.
• The pages of a submitted reserve item should be checked to ensure correct page numbering prior to submission.
• Book and magazine reserve items should be limited to one chapter or one article per reserve item. If a chapter or article exceeds the 32 page limit for each reserve item, then that chapter or article must be further divided into separated reserve items labeled part A ,B, etc. (Each part should have its own corresponding “I” number and should not exceed 32 pages.)
• A reserve item that contains a large number of high quality images vital to that material can be broken up into separate PDF files and linked in an HTML file containing frames. Special reserve items such as these require a notice by e-mail or phone call ahead of sending the hard copy.