Course Reserves

• Course reserves may include electronic and physical items.
• For physical reserves, you may borrow two items at a time.
• Physical reserves may be taken out of the Library, but must be returned to the location where they were borrowed.
• Physical reserves may be borrowed an unlimited number of times and renewed in person only if another copy is available on shelf. If all copies of a reserve item are out on loan, you will have to wait 15 minutes before borrowing the item again.
• Fines for overdue reserves:
  • Five cents per minute to a maximum of $100 per item for one-hour and three-hour loans.
  • $20 per day to a maximum of $100 per item for one-day and three-day loans.

Benefits of using Course Reserves

Types of course reserve materials

Loan period for physical reserves

Setting up Course Reserves

To create a new course reserves list

To add materials to a reserves list

When the term ends

Additional resources

Benefits of using Course Reserves

• We help you provide students with more equitable access to course materials.
• We ensure that links to e-journal articles and e-books for your course readings are persistent.
• We are your legal means of digitizing copyrighted material.
• We apply Fair Dealing Advisory guidelines and when necessary seek permission from copyright holders to purchase licences when available and affordable.
• We link to your course reserve list from the library resources widget in LEARN.
• With Course Reserves, you can
  • Create and manage course reserve lists for the current term.
  • View lists from previous and upcoming terms.
  • Clone a course reserve list for a future term or import items from previous courses.
  • Designate a proxy user: A course teaching assistant can add reserves to a course on your behalf; a full proxy can create new course reserve lists for you as well as add new items to all your existing reserve lists.
  • Track the status of reserve requests.
  • Subscribe to email notification to be updated when new items become available on reserve for your course.
  • Assign tags to individual reserve items.
  • Switch to student mode to view your course reserves as students see them.
  • Get usage statistics for electronic and physical reserves using instructor course tools.

Types of course reserve materials

• Library books, textbooks, DVDs, and CDs.
• Links to materials within our licensed electronic resources such as our ejournal subscriptions and ebooks.
• Material for which we have purchased a transactional license or that qualifies under the Fair Dealing Advisory.
• Digital materials for which permission has been granted.
• Materials belonging to instructors, such as assignment questions/solutions, for which they own the copyright, and personal copies of books.

The Library will not accept responsibility for personal or departmental copies on course reserves that are damaged, not returned, or are lost in transit through campus mail.

Loan periods for physical reserves

Instructors can choose from the following loan periods:

• One hour
• Three hours
• One day — due by desk closing the following day
• Three days — due by desk closing on the fourth day

Setting up Course Reserves

Log in to Course Reserves using your WatIAM username (do not include @uwaterloo.ca) and password. You will be taken to the instructor main menu.

To create a new course reserves list

• Click the "create a new course" option under instructor course tools on the side menu (link to video).

To add materials to a reserves list

• Open a course from the list of current or upcoming courses and select the "add reserve items" option under instructor course tools from the side menu.
• You can also clone a reserves list (link to video) from a past term or import items from a previous list(s).
• Use the paper request form at the Library’s help desk.

When the term ends