Electronic Reserves

Student Information

Electronic Course Reserves provides you with access to course materials 24 hours a day, 7days a week through your Blackboard course site. You can view and print these materials from any computer with Internet access.

Be sure to register with the Library’s EZ-Proxy server that will enable you to link to licensed resources from off campus. The instructions for remote access to Library resources are at: http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/help/remote/ Students can also find remote access instructions under the Library tab in Blackboard. If you have problems accessing your course documents in Blackboard, please contact your professor.

Faculty Information

Electronic Course Reserves provides access to reserve material 24 hours a day, seven days a week through your Blackboard course site. Students have the ability to view and print these materials from any computer with Internet access.

Please follow these procedures to ensure that E-Reserves staff can create your E-Reserves as quickly as possible. E-Reserves staff needs 2 weeks to create E-Reserves for your course site.

  1. Ensure that your Blackboard course has been activated by logging into the CUNY portal http://portal.cuny.edu For assistance with course activation, contact Carlos Cruz at carlosa@brooklyn.cuny.edu or ext. 4667.
  2. Be sure to consult the Library’s Copyright Guidelines (see below) to ensure appropriate use of materials.
  3. Click here to see Do-it-Yourself instructions to link, scan and upload documents to your Blackboard site.
  1. Submitting Documents for Scanning and Uploading.
    E-Reserves staff will scan your documents, create PDFs and upload them to your Blackboard course site. In order for us to expedite the processing of your requests, please provide accurate and complete information. Adhering to the instructions below will enable staff to post your documents on your course site as quickly as possible.


    1. Please complete the E-Reserves Request Form for each course. Attach the form along with your syllabus for the course to the photocopied material you want on your Blackboard site.
    2. Please submit photocopies of each document to be scanned for E-Reserves.
      1. Complete the E-Reserves cover sheet for each document placed on E-Reserves.
      2. Photocopies must be very clean, single sided and on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
        There is a direct relationship between the quality of the photocopy you submit and the quality of the electronic document we are able to create.
    3. Deliver the form and photocopies to the Circulation or Reserves Desk, 1st Floor Library. A staff member will review your material and make certain there are no problems.
    4. If your Blackboard course site is active, E-Reserves staff will upload the PDFs or links to the Documents section of your Blackboard site. In the document list, items will be listed alphabetically by author’s surname and will also show the first 5 words of the title.
    5. E-Reserves staff will contact you to inform you when your documents have been uploaded and the Blackboard course is activated. Your Blackboard course site contains instructions for you and your students on how to access the material.
    6. If you would like help in putting other materials on your Blackboard course site, such as an interactive syllabus, or and linking the readings to the syllabus on your course site please contact Carlos Cruz at carlosa@brooklyn.cuny.edu or x4667. You may also come to the Faculty Training and Development Lab for on-demand one-on-one instruction on Blackboard E-Reserves Monday-Friday from 9am until 5pm.
    7. To place entire books, numerous chapters from the same book, DVD’s, CDs, or videos on reserve, please scroll down to the instructions on how to submit material for On-Site Reserves.
    8. Please consult the Copyright guidelines below.

    Be sure to tell your students that they will be required to authenticate with the Library’s EZ-Proxy server to link to licensed e-resources from off campus. The instructions for remote access to Library e-resources may be found at: http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/help/remote/. Students can also find remote access instructions under the Library tab in Blackboard.

    For questions/problems with E-Reserves, please contact Mary Pope at 718-951-5335 or reserves@brooklyn.cuny.edu

  2. Copyright
    Conformity with copyright restrictions is the responsibility of the instructor.

    You May be Violating Copyright if You...

    • keep a document on Blackboard for more than one continuous semester in a row;
    • reproduce more than 10% of a book;
    • create an electronic course pack that is an exact replication of a published anthology; or,
    • reproduce workbooks, exercises, standardized tests and test booklets and other published consumable material;
    • There's Never a Copyright Issue if You...
    • hyperlink from your Blackboard site to copyrighted material available on the Internet on your Blackboard site.
    • use material in the public domain, i.e. material for which copyright has expired or has been waived.

    For More Information About Copyright See: http://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/copyright/section2f1.htm

    For Help with Copyright, Contact Us: bevans@brooklyn.cuny.edu
    The Library reserves the right to pass questionable materials through its Copyright Committee.

On-site Reserves

Student Information

On-site Reserve Collection Policy

Each semester professors may request that heavily used materials be placed on reserve temporarily for their current class. This procedure is generally used for required readings and class assignments. The Reserve Collection also includes items kept on permanent reserve because of their continuous high demand.

Access to On-site Reserve Collection Materials

Items placed on on-site reserve by instructors--books, articles, and personal copies--may be requested at the Reserves Desk on the 1st floor of the library. In order to identify the correct Reserve item, you must know either the instructor's name, the course title and number, the title of the book, or the author of the book.

Loan Period

The instructor placing the item on on-site reserve generally determines the loan period. The short loan periods allows greater access to the materials for more students.

  • Materials placed on two-hour loans are for Library use only.
  • Materials placed on three-day loans may be charged out.

    • Overdue Items

    Note carefully that overdue Reserve materials are heavily fined, more so than circulating stack books. Overdue fees are listed on each due-date slip in the back of the reserve book or on the folder. Reserve items not returned after overdue notices are sent will be considered lost. The borrower will be billed for the cost of the book plus a service fee, in addition to the accrued overdue fines. These fines can range to a maximum of $35.00 per item. Overdue notices are sent as a courtesy, but it is the patron's responsibility to notify the Library of any name or address change. Failure to receive a notice does not eliminate the fine.

    Instructor Information

    To place an item on on-site reserve, the instructor must first complete an on-site Reserve Materials List Form. Due to the required processing, time and high volume of reserve requests, faculty should submit reserve lists to the Circulation Desk at least four weeks prior to the beginning of a new semester. Lists will be dated and processed in the order of their receipt. However, processing will be speeded up if you submit reserve lists with the materials needed.

    Books not already owned by the Brooklyn College Library should be ordered well in advance through the Circulation Desk. This will ensure proper processing and avoid confusion and delay. Photocopies of journal articles and chapters of books to be placed on reserve should be provided by the instructor. Multiple copies can be placed on reserve depending on the assignment and class enrollment--usually one copy for every twenty students. If the Library does not have the required materials, faculty members may place their personal copies on reserve. Please note that neither bound periodicals nor interlibrary loan materials may be placed on reserve.

    At the end of the semester, reserve material will be returned to the stacks without further notice to the instructor. Faculty wishing to have the materials kept on reserve for the following term must notify the Circulation Desk before the end of the current semester.

    For further assistance regarding reserve procedures, please direct all questions or problems to the Circulation Desk, ext 5335. E-mail reserves requests and queries can be sent to Mary Pope at Reserves@brooklyn.cuny.edu.