The University Libraries offers faculty the option to set aside specific materials from the library’s collections for their students and courses.

We offer support for physical materials to be placed on Course Reserve. These reserved materials are set aside from the rest of the library’s collections and are accessible to students for a shorter loan period, typically 3 hours. This helps ensure that students within a designated class have an opportunity to access their course-specific materials.

If you are interested in requesting physical reserves for your course, please be aware of the data-driven criteria used to approve all requests:

• Materials must be required for the course
• Materials that do not exceed the 10 items maximum per course
• Repeat requests that received at least 5 checked-outs
• First time requests that meet the above criteria

Most physical materials within the library’s collection can be placed on reserve. Please note that the following items are not eligible for reserve:

• Audio/Visual materials (DVDs, BluRay, VHS, CDs, Cassettes, etc.)
• Maps
• Newspapers
• Reference materials
• Special collections
• Archives
• Study tools
• Non-circulating materials
• Personal items

Possible exceptions may be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We encourage you to work with your subject-specific liaison librarian to find suitable course material options. You may also suggest a purchase to be added to the libraries’ collections.

Once you’ve decided on physical library materials for Course Reserve, submit your request here:

Course Reserve Request

You can also browse the current list of Course Reserve items at any time.

E-Reserves Statement

As of Fall 2020, the University Libraries no longer manages electronic course reserves. Instead, we encourage faculty to add links from the library resources directly to their Blackboard courses. For assistance with this process, please consult your department’s eLearning Liaison.

Electronic Resources from the Library

The library owns many electronic resources that can be linked on Blackboard for your courses.

• Library Search offers a wide range of e-books, articles, newspapers, etc.
• Library Catalog searches our book and some e-book collections.
• Subject Guides can assist in quickly finding subject-specific electronic resources.
• Journal Search can be filtered by discipline and by peer-reviewed information.
• Databases is the full list of all the libraries’ electronic subscriptions, including a section for newly acquired databases.
• Open Educational Resources is a list of electronic textbooks and educational materials that do not require licensing or subscriptions to access.
• ScholarWorks@GVSU is an open-access repository that showcases and maintains works by various GVSU scholars.
• GVSU Digital Collections are physical items (photos, letters, etc.) that have been preserved via digitization, as well as digital oral history collections.

For assistance in finding the best resources for your course, please connect with your Liaison Librarian.

Adding Electronic Resources in Blackboard

Faculty can add electronic resources directly to their Blackboard courses.

We highly recommend using the libraries’ resource links. Linking directly to the libraries’ electronic resources allows us to collect accurate usage statistics. (Please, note that library materials showing little to no usage may be removed from the library’s collection at any time.)

We created a Faculty Guide that explains each step in adding any electronic resource link to Blackboard. Remember to find the permanent link for the resource and put it through the Link Fixer tool. These steps ensure that your students can always access the resource, especially if they are viewing it off campus.

Copyright and Fair Use

All of the libraries’ electronic resources are within copyright compliance. Non-library resources will need to be verified by whomever shares the resource.

If you plan to use non-library electronic resources (i.e. files or links) for your courses, please consult the libraries’ copyright information and fair use resources. For more information about copyright compliance, please contact the Scholarly Communications Team.

Course Reserves
[email protected]