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Placing Course Materials on Reserve

Selected Course Reserves materials for the Schools of Integrative Biology (SIB) and Molecular & Cellular Biology (SMCB) and occasionally other courses are done by the Biology Library.  E-reserves for the Biology Library are handled through Information Processing & Management (IPM), a unit of the University Library's Technical Services Division.   Details with instructions follow below.   To find reserve items, see Finding Course Materials on Reserve. For additional information, see Biology Library   FAQ's Course Reserves for information how to locate Biology Library Reserves materials.   Note: Professors, please share this information with your TA’s.

Print Reserves 

Books, booklets, or course packs to be placed on Reserve should be given to Fay Weatherspoon in the Biology Library (4-3590;  101 Burrill Hall, MC-112).  Allow at least 24 hours for processing these items during the semester, more time at the beginning of the semester. If material is brought in after 3 PM on Fridays, it may not be available to students until Monday afternoon. Fay also needs your reserves as soon as possible at the beginning of each semester, preferably well before the semester begins. When you bring reserves to the library, please make sure you include a note with the course number, the professor’s and TA’s names, and a phone number in case of questions. Do not put books or articles in the Reserve area yourself! They must be processed first.

Either library books or personal copies can be placed on reserve. Personal copies are generally marked Room Use Only, so that students can not take them out of the library.   Security strips will be put in personal copies unless otherwise requested.   The Biology Library does not purchase general, basic-level textbooks, and our collection of more specialized textbooks is not extensive. It is appropriate to request advanced textbooks for reserve, if they are not the required textbook for the course. If you aren’t sure if the library already owns a copy of the textbook, please request it as soon as possible. It can take up to 6 weeks to purchase a copy.

Electronic Reserves

Materials that are appropriate for electronic reserves are  articles, book chapters, lecture notes, exams, reserves lists, and selected other material types that can be photocopied.  Materials will be scanned and a link provided from the Course Reserves section of the Online Library Catalog under your course name.  If the article is already available electronically, a direct link to the article will be made. To access electronic reserves, search the Course Reserves section by course number or instructor's name from the UIUC Online Library Catalog where items can then be linked to. 

E-reserves for the Biology Library are handled through Information Processing & Management (IPM), a unit of the University Library's Technical Services Division.  Electronic Reserves can be taken care of by dropping off your reserves list(s) and one clean, one-sided photocopy of the item(s), pdf (s) (no Mac formatted disks or ZIPs, please), or the URL of electronic articles along with your Electronic Reserve Request Form: PDF | MS Word | Webform  at the Undergraduate Library (UGL) Service Desk, or mailed to the Information Processing & Management Center (IPM) at their new location at 7A Main Library, MC-522 [please note that the IPM location is for mailed materials only - not items to be dropped off.  Dropped-off items are received at the Undergraduate Library (UGL) Service Desk].   

Requests are usually processed within 48 hours, although the more advance notice you can give them the better, especially at the beginning of the semester. The library will take care of copyright clearance for articles that exceed the Fair Use provisions.  Only people logging in from campus IP addresses or with campus NetID's will be able to access the e-reserve materials.

Materials are automatically removed from reserve at the end of each term unless there is a request submitted to carry them over to the next term.  To take Library-owned books, media, or electronic reserves off earlier than the end of the term, send an email to ipm@library.uiuc.edu with course and instructor information, as well as which particular items should be taken off of reserve and why.  Personal copied can be picked up at the Undergraduate Library (UGL)  Circulation & Reserve Desk any time the UGL is open.

If you have questions about the electronic reserves process, contact the Information Processing & Management staff at ipm@library.uiuc.edu; 4-3773 or Mary S. Laskowski, Head, IPM at mkschnei@illinois.edu. 

For comments on this page contact: Biology Library

Last modified by: Melody Allison on 8/6/09