What is E-Reserves?
Who can use E-Reserves?
How do I know which reserves are available electronically?
How do I access E-Reserves?
How do I find the document/article I need?
What are the deadlines for submitting E-Reserves requests?
How are faculty members notified when the materials they request to be placed on reserve are ready?
How do students know when reserve materials are available for use?
If a faculty member is submitting materials for E-Reserves, what are the formatting guidelines?
What is E-Reserves?
E-Reserves is an electronic reserves software program that enables students to access copies of library-owned scanned book chapters and journal articles that are not available online through other means, and other materials that faculty may place on the Course Reserves Collection as required course readings.
Who can use E-Reserves?
Access to E-Reserves is restricted, on a course by course basis, to currently enrolled Hunter College students. To ensure compliance with current copyright restrictions, students may be asked to provide a password to enter the E-Reserves course page for their course(s). These passwords will be provided to students by their professors at the beginning of the semester.
How do I know which reserves are available electronically?
When books and other materials are not available electronically, a link on the E-Reserves page will lead users to the Library’s online catalog screen where they will be able to obtain the call number of the item if it is available in print at the library and check the status of the item. Users should write down the call number, and then request the material at the Course Reserve desk located on the 3rd floor in the Main Campus Library or at the Circulation desks at the branch libraries.
How do I access E-Reserves?
Reserve materials can be accessed electronically, on or off campus:
- Go directly to the Hunter College E-Reserves page:
* Off campus access to the Library's subscribed databases require an active Hunter College email account.
How do I find the document/article I need?
Once you are logged into the E-Reserves system, the directions are fairly intuitive. Follow the on-screen commands. The procedure is as follows:
- Search for your course by department, subject, or instructor.
- Make course selection from results list and click on Go.
- Enter the password provided to you by your instructor, if any.
- Read the Copyright Notice then click Accept.
- Material is alphabetically arranged, select the desired material.
- E-Reserves will open the program needed to read the material (i.e. Adobe Acrobat Reader, MS Word, Netscape or Internet Explorer).
What are the deadlines for submitting E-Reserves requests?
To allow time for requested reserve material to be processed and made available for the first day of the school term, all requests should be submitted prior to the following dates:
- Fall Semester - July 31
- Spring Semester - December 20
- Summer Semester - May 1
How are faculty members notified when the materials they request to be placed on reserve are ready?
- Faculty members will be notified via email that includes a URL that links to their specific reserve materials.
How do students know when reserve materials are available for use?
- After faculty receive their email notification and link (see above) they should notify their students that the reserve materials are available through the library's E-Reserves page.
- Faculty members must give students a password to access the materials.
- Students can search by course number, course name, department, or instructor.
If a faculty member is submitting materials for E-Reserves, what are the formatting guidelines?
- Format
The Library will provide linking to its subscription databases. Instructors are encouraged to use library licensed online periodicals and other content because they do not require copyright permissions and the paying of royalties. These resources are governed by licensing agreements, not copyright laws, and may, therefore, be used as needed. Always search for an article in the Libraries’ online journals, and include the URL when completing the online Reserve Request Form. Items for e-reserve may also be submitted in traditional print format. Print items will be converted to Adobe PDF format. In addition to print copies, the Library will accept PDF files on CD. Larger documents must be saved as multiple files (see Length of Document below).
- Persistent Links for Articles in Hunter Databases
When requesting an article be linked from one of the Libraries’ subscription databases, include the persistent URL when completing the Reserve Request Form. The persistent URL is crucial to insuring that the link remains stable, providing dependable access to your students. It is usually clearly marked and located somewhere in the body of the first page, not at the top.
- Length of Document
Documents will be broken down into segments of no more than 20 pages to minimize downloading and printing time.
- Full Bibliographic Citation
Author/Editor, article title, chapter title and chapter number, as well as the journal/book title and page numbers, must be included for each article or book chapter. Please match the titles of the submitted articles with those used on the course syllabus or reading lists, so that your students are able to find the appropriate readings when using E-Reserves.
- Condition (Physical drop off not currently possible)
Items to be scanned should be in the best possible condition. For photocopies, please bring a clean, high quality copy of the article for scanning with the full bibliographic citation printed or typed clearly on a separate page.
- Paper Size
Cannot exceed 8 ½” by 11". Please note: copies must be single-sided.
- Page Orientation
Please try to limit each item to a single page orientation, either portrait or landscape. Items that have mixed orientations will need to be adjusted after scanning and may take longer to process.
- Accessibility to people with disabilities
To make items equally accessible to students with disabilities, and to comply with accessibility law, the following steps are needed
- Clean Condition
Items should be clean copies without marks such as handwriting, highlighting, or discoloration from copying and scanning. If you do not have a clean copy, try requesting one via interlibrary loan.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for PDFs
PDFs should be OCR’ed. If you submit your materials to the Library through Reserve Request, the Library will handle OCR as soon as possible. If you upload your own material directly to e-reserves, you are responsible for OCR. If you can copy and paste an individual phrase or sentence from the PDF, it is usually OCR’ed.
- PDFs Converted from Word or Powerpoint
Documents converted to PDF from other formats such as Word or Powerpoint can be very difficult to make accessible. If at all possible, upload the original format, or at least save the original and make it available if needed.
Questions About How People with Disabilities use the Web
If you are interested to understand how accessibility is important for people with various disabilities to use web content WebAIM is a good source of information.