Guidelines for Regular Reserve

The Reserve Room of the Northwestern University Library contains assigned reading materials, usually books or photocopies, placed on Reserve by NU faculty for current courses. This page details basic policies for faculty use of Regular Reserve.

I. SUBMITTING LISTS

A. Complete either the attached form or online form to submit your materials. Provide full citations. Lists may be sent to
e-reserve@northwestern.edu or brought directly to the Reserve Reading Room on the second floor in the North Tower.
B. Submit Regular Reserve lists for each course at least four weeks before the start of the quarter. Collecting books and/or processing photocopies (and obtaining copyright clearance, if applicable) takes a considerable amount of time. Because the first half of every quarter is an extremely busy period, Reserve lists submitted late will be processed only as time becomes available.
C. If new books or additional copies of books need to be ordered, the request should be submitted eight weeks before the start of the quarter.
D. A maximum of 20 items per course can be placed on Reserve.

II. TYPES OF RESERVE MATERIALS

A. Northwestern University Library books, including materials from most NU branch libraries.
B. Photocopies of book chapters or articles from periodicals. (Please see the copyright section below.) Reserve Services will not place a photocopied excerpt from a NUL book on Regular Reserve. Reserve Services will, however, post the excerpt electronically; see the Electronic Reserve guidelines for more details.
C. Personal copies of books or other materials. If a NUL copy is available, Reserve Services will place that copy on reserve in lieu of the personal copy.

III. CIRCULATION PERIODS/WITHDRAWAL of MATERIALS

A. Reserve Services offers loan periods of 2 hours, 1 day, or 3 days. Unless specified otherwise, materials will circulate for 2 hours.
B. Books from the Art Collection and branch libraries do not circulate outside the library and will always be 2-hour items.
C. Following the academic quarter, all books will be taken off reserve and returned to the appropriate library.
D. Photocopies will be archived in the Reserve Room for three years unless faculty request to have them returned.
E. Personal copies are returned to faculty through campus mail following the end of the quarter.

IV. COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS

Reserve Services follows the American Library Association's "Fair Use" guidelines.

10% of one book and/or a single article from a journal issue can be photocopied and made available via Regular Reserve. If you need to exceed these parameters, Reserve Services must request copyright permission from the publishers.

If you have questions, please call the Reserve Room (1-7681) between 8:30 am and 5 pm.

mailtoe-reserve@northwestern.edu