Reserve for Students -- Frequently Asked Questions
What is Reserve?
How can I contact Reserve?
How can I access books and photocopies that are
on Reserve?
How can I access Electronic Reserve items?
How can I access Electronic Reserve items from off campus?
What are the loan periods and late fees/fines?
What is Reserve? 
Reserve is a library service that allows instructors to set aside books, exams, notes and articles for the use of their classes, or make articles and selections from books available online. This reduces student expenses and allows out-of-print or expensive books to be made available.
How can I contact Reserve?
You may reach us by email or by phone at (847) 491-7681. Full-time staff are generally available to assist you between 8:30 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.
How can I access books and photocopies that
are on Reserve?
Reserve materials are located in the Main Library on 2 North. Bring the Reserve item's call number to the Reserve Desk and a library assistant will retrieve it for you. Find the call number by looking in the library's catalog NUcat. Above the search box click the Course Reserve tab, then search from pull-down menus by instructor, department and/or course number. A list of titles will be returned and you may return the call number.
How can I access Electronic Reserve items?
Electronic Reserve items may be accessed directly through the web and either read online or printed. Access the library's catalog NUcat. Above the search box click the Course Reserve tab, then search from pull-down menus by instructor (see image above), department and/or course number. A list of titles will be returned. Click on the title you wish to read, then click on the URL to access a PDF version of the document.
How can I access Electronic Reserve items from
off campus?
Electronic Reserve documents are accessible only to
members of the NU community; even current NU community members may be
unable to access this material from an off-campus commercial internet
service provider (e.g., AOL or Comcast). For NU students who would like
to access campus-only information from off campus, however, several direct
solutions are available. The easiest and most effective solution is Virtual
Private Networking (VPN), which is available in Macintosh OS X, Linux,
and Windows XP. More information about VPN and other options for off-campus
access can be found here.
What are loan periods and late fees?
Regular reserve items have highly restricted loan periods and steep overdue fines to insure that the materials are available to all students in a class. Below are the 3 loan periods: professors choose the loan periods for Reserve items.
-
2 HOUR LOAN PERIOD: 2-hour items circulate for 2 hours and accrue overdue fines at a rate of $1.00 per hour, including overnight hours or other hours the library is closed.
- 4 HOUR LOAN PERIOD: as 2-hour items, but with a 4-hour loan period.
-
1 DAY LOAN PERIOD: 1-day items are due 15 minutes prior to closing on the day after they were charged. Overdue fines accrue at a rate of $5.00 per day.
-
3 DAY LOAN PERIOD: 3-day items are due 15 minutes prior to closing on the third day after they were charged. Overdue fines accrue at a rate of $1.50 per day.
In most cases, overdue and fine notices are sent via email. If you have a question about overdue/fine notifications or would like to discuss a fine, contact Reserve Services during business hours, weekdays 8:30am-5pm at 491-7681. You may also reply directly to the notice emailed to you. All fines are payable at the Circulation Desk on the first floor of the Main Library.
e-reserve@northwestern.edu
