Course Reserves

Information for Faculty (Placing Items on Reserve)

What can be put on reserve?

  • Books from the library's collection
  • Your personal books
  • Textbooks
  • Desk copies
  • Supplementary books
  • DVDs, Blu-ray discs, or VHS tapes (we have facilities for viewing them!)
  • Study aids such as previous years' quizzes
  • Streaming services for sharing music and videos are also available

What can't be put on reserve?

  • Books owned by any other library, including OhioLINK and Interlibrary loan items
  • Book chapters or photocopied articles

To put an item on reserve, complete the online reservation form. Note that we cannot place items from other libraries on reserve.

Reserve Reservation Form

If you are requesting to place Jerome Library's books on reserve, we will need the title and call number of the books. The registration form must be completed in order for us to pull library owned items for you.

If a requested item is checked out, we will recall it. This process usually takes about two weeks.

Faculty or department owned items are the main part of the course reserve collection. If you are putting your own books or materials on reserve, please either bring the items to the Circulation Desk or mail them to Jerome Library #113.

Instructors choose from three different loan periods:

  • 2 hours: The most common option and best for textbooks. These items must stay in the building.
  • 24 hours or 72 hours: Better for supplemental or monograph readings

Instructors can choose to have their personally owned items returned or keep them on reserve for another semester.

If you have any questions about the process at any point, please contact course reserves at 419-372-7908 or eres@bgsu.edu. We can answer questions or help you make arrangements for special situations.

BGSU faculty may request that copies of materials from either their personal collection or the CRC collection be put on Reserve at the CRC Information and Lending desk located on the 2nd floor of Jerome Library. This will enable students enrolled in their courses to access these materials for a selected loan period listed below.

Please fill out the reserve registration form at least one week before the materials are needed by students.

CRC Reserve Registration Form

Loan Periods

  • 2-hour reserve (may not leave the CRC)
  • 72-hour reserve
  • 168 hour reserve

What if the CRC doesn't have a copy?

We are happy to make instructors' personal copies of materials available for use via the CRC Reserves. We cannot put OhioLINK materials on Reserve. If you would like to request that an item be purchased for the CRC's collection, please contact Head Librarian, Colleen Boff.

What if the CRC has a copy, but it's not available?

We can recall items that are checked out to make sure they're available for your students. Requests that include materials that are checked out may take longer to fill. If something is missing or damaged, we can order a replacement copy. To make a request for purchase, please contact Head Librarian, Colleen Boff.

For additional questions about Reserve procedures, email crc@libanswers.bgsu.edu.

Anyone teaching a course on campus is welcome to use the reserve services offered by the Music Library. Please direct reserve requests and questions to Trinidad Linares. Requests will be processed in the order they are received. Please allow for a minimum of one week for processing; more time may be necessary at the beginnings of semesters.

Request a Music Library Reserve

Streaming Audio Reserves

The Music Library provides access to sound and video recording reserves on and off campus through Avalon, our audio and video streaming platform. All audio reserve requests from our physical collections will be placed on the streaming server, unless you are using a published anthology (which will only be available as a traditional reserve in the Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives because of copyright limitations). Submit all of your reserve requests as you ordinarily would and send us a list of your course roster so that we can enroll the students in their appropriate section. We'll also enroll you as a student so that you can see the reserve system as they will.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Music Library materials can I put on reserve?

  • Books, scores
  • CDs, LPs, Cassettes
  • VHS, DVDs

(Yes! we have facilities for listening to and viewing older media formats)

How long are the loan periods?

  • 2-hour reserve (may not leave the Music Library)- this is the most common and popular option
  • 24-hour reserve

What about articles and book chapters?

For electronic articles, you may link to them directly from within your Canvas course; see the library's guide to persistent links to help you find the correct link in a variety of databases. The music library has two scanners you can use to scan and upload selected book chapters into your Canvas course.

What if the library doesn't have a copy?

We are happy to make instructors' personal copies of materials available for use via Music Reserve.

If you would like to request an item be purchased for the library's collection, please email Trinidad Linares. However, it is not the library's policy to purchase copies of all required textbooks.

What if the library has a copy, but it's not available?

We can recall items that are checked out to make sure they're available for your students. Requests that include materials that are checked out may take longer to fill.

If something is missing or damaged, we can order a replacement copy. To make a request for purchase, please email Trinidad Linares.

Avalon is an online service that provides round-the-clock access to streaming audio and video content. This content includes some course reserve materials, library-owned items, and locally created content from campus departments.

All audio reserve requests from the Music Library's physical collections will be placed on Avalon, unless you are using a published anthology (which will only be available as a traditional reserve in the Music Library and Bill Schurk Sound Archives because of copyright limitations). Submit all audio streaming reserve requests using the Reserves Request Form and select "3rd Floor - Music Library & Sound Recording Archives" for the location.

If you’d like to request a video as a streaming course reserve, follow the instructions at https://avalon.bgsu.edu/

Information for Students (Finding & Using Reserves)

Search for materials on reserve

You can start at the Jerome Library's home page and click on the "Reserves" tab.

Arrow pointing to the reserves tab on the BGSU Libraries homepage

Type in your professor's last name, course prefix and number, or book title or author (last name first).

You will see a result that will look similar to this:

Arrows pointing to course description, location of materials, and checkout length in the libraries catalog

In this example there is:

  1. Course and professor information
  2. Location of the item (Main Reserves are at the Circulation Desk at the Jerome Library)
  3. Book or material availability (one book is available to borrow, the other is checked out until 7:00pm)

Under location, you may see listings that say "CRC Reserve" which is held on the 2nd floor, "Music Library" which is held on the 3rd floor, or "Firelands Reserve" which is in the library at our Firelands campus. Unfortunately, books and materials on reserve cannot be sent between our Firelands campus and main campus. (Remember, many other items can be borrowed, so please ask if you need more information.)

Once you have determined where to find your book or course material, go to the appropriate desk with the call number, course number, your professor's name and your photo ID. A staff member will get the material for you.

Reserve books cannot be held for pick up at a certain time. All books are first-come, first-serve. Two-hour materials can be used anywhere in the library, but cannot leave the building.

Please note that overdue fines are $1.00 per hour.

Reserve materials may be found by searching the library catalog or by asking a CRC staff member at the Information and Lending desk during CRC hours. Curriculum Resource Center reserve materials must be requested at, checked out from, and returned to the CRC Information and Lending Desk. Here are a few policies to keep in mind with Reserve material:

  • Fines for overdue reserve material accrue at $1.00 an hour.
  • Students may not put holds on reserve material.
  • Reserve material may not be renewed.
  • Once a student returns a reserve item, there is a 24 hour waiting period before that student can borrow the same reserve item again. This allows for other patrons to have a chance to use the material. The only exception is if there are two copies of an item.

Loan Periods

  • 2-hour reserve (may not leave the CRC)
  • 72-hour reserve
  • 168-hour (7 day) reserve

Items that show the location of "Music Reserve" in the library catalog are located in the Music Library, which is on the third floor of the Jerome Library.

Music Reserve materials must be requested at, checked out from, and returned to the Music Service Desk.

You can find items on reserve by searching the catalog by instructor name or course number.

You can also access streaming audio reserves.

Avalon is an online service that provides round-the-clock access to streaming audio and video content. This content includes some course reserve materials, library-owned items, and locally created content from campus departments. You can see the full list of titles available on Avalon or search for specific titles from the Avalon search page. BGSU users will need to sign in to access the content that is assigned to them or restricted to the campus community. Avalon also includes publicly available content, which can be accessed via the search box, or there are options to browse by date, format, collection and more.

Updated: 10/16/2023 12:14PM