Submit Course Reserves

A note from Pongracz Sennyey, Director of Preston Library:

Dear Faculty,

In examining the usage of materials placed on Course Reserves with us, it has become clear that use has shifted from print to electronic materials in a rather dramatic way. Last year, we placed about 110-120 print items on reserves each semester, and collectively they circulated just a dozen times or so each term. Electronic course reserves, on the other hand, circulated about 1,100 times per semester for slightly fewer total items. (See table below.)

In light of the staff effort and shelf space required to make this service work, I would like to propose a new path forward that better matches the needs of our Cadets:

1. The library will continue to provide print reserves, but instead of keeping the items behind the Service Desk, we will put them out in the open, on a designated shelf on the 5th floor, where users can find and browse them more easily.
2. Instead of having custom short-circulation times (from a few hours to a few days), we will keep to the standard  check-out period for books and DVDs.
3. The library will encourage the use of electronic reserves. This is the most popular, convenient, and effective way to make scholarly materials accessible to our Cadets. In fact, these items – whether they are links to articles, e-books, or streaming video in the library’s collections, or scanned portions of print materials currently in the library – are ideally uploaded onto Canvas, directly on your course pages where Cadets are already doing their work.
4. Should you wish to place personal copies of print items on reserves with us, be advised that such items will no longer be temporarily cataloged or tracked in our circulation system, and will be housed on the same open shelves as print reserves materials from our collections. You may opt instead to keep such items available in your department lounge for Cadets to access at will.

Library staff will continue to support you by scanning to PDF the portions of our print materials that you would like to put on reserves under fair-use copyright guidelines, and by providing the permanent links to articles, eBooks, and other currently held electronic resources that you designate for reserves. Whenever possible, we will purchase the e-book(s) you need for course reserves – though not every title is yet available in electronic format. Some lead time may be required for this option.

For overall Course Reserves support and requests, please continue to contact Beth Homicz, our Head of Circulation, at homiczbj@vmi.edu. For specific support on permalinks to our existing digital resources, such as streaming video, online articles, and eBooks, please contact the Head of Research and Instruction Services, Liz Kocevar-Weidinger, at kocevar-weidingerea@vmi.edu.

Do let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Pongracz

_______________
Pongracz Sennyey
Director - Preston Library
Virginia Military Institute

sennyeypj@vmi.edu
540-464-7573 Office
512-592-1560 Cell