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OSU Libraries and Services during COVID-19

Digital Course Reserves


How does it work?

  • Wherever possible, OSU Libraries will acquire a licensed e-book copy of course texts for reserves. The terms of the license will determine how many simultaneous users can access e-books that are on reserve.
  • Where no licensed digital copy is available, and the Libraries legally own a physical copy, OSU Libraries will scan print materials to create digital copies.
  • Scanned digital reserves will be viewable to one student at a time for each copy owned by the Libraries. When viewing, user must be logged in with ONID to access; after 30 minutes inactivity they will be timed out.  See our current digital course reserves here.
  • Teaching faculty will receive an email when reserve items are available, and they should share this information with their students.
  • Students can also find items on reserve by searching the catalog or contacting library staff.

Teaching Faculty - Requesting Reserves

Due to increased requests, it is taking longer than usual to process course reserves.

Requests will be filled in the order received. You will be notified when your materials are available.

  • Teaching faculty should use the Purchase Request Form for Collections and Course Reserves to initiate a request. Please use this form to initiate all requests, even if you believe the library already owns a copy of the materials that you need.
  • Submit requests as soon as possible so that library workers have enough time to acquire and process new texts and scan those that need to be scanned.
  • When making decisions about course texts, consider digital access issues. We can help you to identify texts with library-friendly e-book licenses and/or Open Educational Resources.

Students - Finding & Requesting Reserves

Find out if your course reserve materials are available by checking this list. If your materials are listed, your instructor should have it accessible in your course.

If it is listed and your instructor does not have access, or if you have other questions about reserve materials, please Ask a Librarian to find out more. 

Library staff will ask you for the following information:

  • Your email address
  • The course designator/number of the course (e.g., ALS101)
  • The name of the instructor for the course
  • Title of the resource needed

If you find a course reserve that is open source or free, please email that information to valley.reserves@oregonstate.edu.

Students can also submit a request to access course reserve content through the Human Services Resource Center (HSRC).