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 library does not purchase course textbooks for our general collection, but we do partner with the Student Government Association (SGA), which provides funding for particularly costly textbooks. Because the SGA funds are limited, we cannot purchase every required textbook. Instead, we rely on faculty recommendations and student demand. Faculty who would like us to purchase a textbook used in an upcoming or current course, should submit a request to the library.