Course Reserves is a service that provides short-term access to high-demand or high-cost course materials. Course Reserves materials are kept at each library’s front desk, where students can ask to borrow them. These materials include textbooks, books, videos, and other print resources.
Because many students may need to use the same materials, physical reserve items have short loan periods: 4 hours or 1 day. This allows more students to access these materials during the semester.
Course Reserves for Students
- What Items Are on Course Reserve?
- Not all required readings are available as Course Reserves. Search the Catalyst catalog to see which course materials are available.
- Late Fees
- If Course Reserves materials are returned late, borrowers will be charged a late fee of $2/hour. This fee helps ensure materials are returned on time so other students can use them. These late fees will be automatically added to the student’s [student accounts]
- No Renewals
- Unlike most other library materials, Course Reserves items cannot be renewed. They must be returned by the due date so they can be available to other students.
Course Reserves for Faculty
Faculty are responsible for submitting Course Reserve requests to the library. Without this, the library does not know what materials your students will need shared access to.
Most library materials in our catalog (including e-books and streaming videos) can be put on Course Reserves. Also, faculty may put personal copies of books and DVDs on Course Reserves for their classes.
We do not place the following categories of items on reserve:
- Materials owned by Carleton College’s library
- Rented or copied DVDs
- Materials borrowed through Resource Sharing
- Special Collections materials
SGA Textbooks
The SGA Textbook Initiative expands access to course materials by providing the library funding to purchase dozens of high-demand textbooks for our Course Reserves collection each semester.
Thanks to this partnership between Student Government Association (SGA) and the St. Olaf Libraries, students can access over 100 current textbooks for free, helping offset the cost of course materials. Students may borrow these books for four hours at a time or overnight, if checked out within four hours of the library’s closing time.
A full list of SGA-funded textbooks can be browsed on the library website.
Our collection continues to grow, with purchasing decisions guided by course offerings and student needs. If a textbook you need isn’t available, please let us know. We’ll explore whether it can be added to the collection as funding allows.
Faculty: If you’d like to request the library purchase a textbook with SGA funds, please submit a Library Materials Purchase Request.