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Library Services

Course Reserves

"Reserves" refers to items that a faculty member has set aside for use in a particular course. They are kept separate from the general collection and have a short loan period in order to provide the most access to the materials to the greatest number of people. Reserve materials include items from the Library’s collections, professors’ personal copies of books, CDs, videos and folders containing photocopies of journal articles or book chapters. The loan period for Reserves materials is usually two hours. Some items on reserve have a loan period of 24 hours. Scanners are available in the libraries to copy Reserve materials. A UMass Lowell ID (UCARD) or a UML issued library card accompanied by a photo ID is required for borrowing Reserve material. Up to three items may be borrowed at a time.

Reserve Policies Statement 

The UMass Lowell Libraries welcome your reserves materials. In order to ensure quality, equity, and to be in compliance with United States copyright law we have established these policies. If you would like to place materials on reserve that are not eligible under these policies, librarians will be happy to work with you to find appropriate substitutions. Title 17 of the U.S. Code may be viewed at the Office of Law Revision Counsel.

Please review our Reserves policies.

  • Items may be placed on Reserve at any time during the semester but may take up to two weeks to process. Bringing Reserves items to the Access Services department earlier than two weeks in advance is encouraged and appreciated.
  • If the Library does not own an item needed for reserve, faculty members may contact the Research & Learning Librarians to explore options for accessing that material. Please send your requests to ask@uml.libanswers.com.
  • Personal copies of books and/or CDs may be placed on Reserve.
  • For Video reserves contact Dave Ambrose or Celine Beaudry
  • Barcode stickers and call number labels will be affixed to personal copies of materials being placed on Reserve.
  • Full text articles available from the Libraries' databases or online on the open web may be placed on Reserve.
  • eBooks available from the Libraries' databases or the open web may be placed on Reserve.
  • No more than one copy of photocopied articles per 25 students in a class may be placed on Reserve.
  • Items obtained through Interlibrary Loan may not be placed on Reserve.
  • No more than 25 photocopies and/or 25 books or other media items per course for a limit of 50 items total may be placed on Reserve.
  • No more than one chapter of a particular book may be photocopied and placed on Reserve.
  • No more than 5 articles from one journal title published in the past five years may be placed on Reserve.
  • All photocopies will be stamped with a copyright notice.
  • Photocopies may remain on reserve for one semester only.
  • Any item not in compliance with copyright law will be returned to the faculty member.
  • Personal copies and photocopies must be retrieved within two weeks of the end of the semester after that time, they will be delivered to the department office.

Looking up Reserves

Reserves at UML are listed in our online catalog.

  • Find the item you want to use by selecting Course Reserves fromthe drop down menu under the Search tab in the upper left corner.
  • Select Courses and enter your Instructor's name, the Department, the Course name or Course number in the search box to see what is on reserve for that class.
  • Note the call number for the item(s) you wish to borrow.

Using Reserves

  • Reserves are located at the Circulation Desks at O'Leary and Lydon Libraries.
  • Bring the call number and title of the item you wish to borrow to the Circulation Desk indicated in the catalog for the item you want.
  • A staff member will retrieve the item(s) and check them out to you.  You must have your UML (UCARD) ID or a UML issued library card accompanied by a photo ID with you. (Drivers' licenses alone are not acceptable.) When you have finished with the reserve item(s), return them to the desk and a staff member will discharge the item(s).
  • Up to three items may be borrowed at a time.

 

Electronic Reserves

The UML Libraries are pleased to offer our Electronic Reserves service. Instructors are able to place full text articles found in our databases on reserve. A link to the article will be put into the Libraries' online catalog under the instructor's name, the course name or number, allowing students to access Electronic Reserve material from any computer with an internet connection at any time. If the full text of the article is in HTML format, the link in the catalog will point to the whole article. If the article is in PDF format, the catalog link will lead to the abstract of the article with a link to access the full text PDF file.

Placing Items on Electronic Reserve

  • Verify that the article you wish to place on Electronic Reserve is available in full text in our databases.
  • Email the complete citation (including the name of the database in which the article is available), instructor's name, course name and number to Ellen MJ Keane. Please note that incomplete citations or information will not be processed.
  • Up to 25 articles may be placed on Electronic Reserve per course.
  • Electronic Reserves will be deleted at the end of each semester.
  • It will take approximately 2 weeks for items to be processed for Electronic Reserve.