For reserve requests regarding the Master's in Medical Informatics program please contact the Schaffner Library.

The purpose of placing materials on reserve is to make common reading assignments readily available to a large number of students within a relatively short period of time. Reserves are specifically tied to the curriculum and individual classes in the medical school.

Galter Library provides both print and electronic reserves to accomplish this. Currently, books, models, DVDs and other audiovisual materials that are required or recommended for a particular class are placed on reserve at the Circulation Desk. Journal articles or book chapters are placed on electronic reserve, and can be accessed through eMerg.

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1. To place materials on reserve, faculty or course coordinators must:

• Fill out the online submission form.
• If the library does not own the item, you will be asked to provide a copy of the item to be placed on reserve. Single-sided copies should be made directly from the source material on clean white 8 1/2 x 11 paper without staples. The better the copy looks, the better the scanned document will be. If the item is available electronically through the Galter Library's Web site, you may not need to supply a copy. Please contact Stephanie Kerns (503-1201) for more information.

2. Materials for reserve should be submitted by filling out the online submission form. If you have any questions about reserves policies, you may contact Stephanie Kerns, Head of the Education Department. She can be reached at (312) 503-1201 or email Stephanie.

3. We require a minimum of two weeks for reserve items owned by the library. During peak times (beginning of semesters or quarters), processing time for electronic reserves may take longer. If we have to order the item, the processing time can exceed a month or more depending on if it is in print and where we must order the item .

4. All journal articles and book chapters will be placed on electronic reserve.

• There is a limit of 50 pages per document.
• You must enter complete citation information using the online submission form. Providing accurate and complete citations will speed processing time. Incomplete citations will significantly delay processing time.
• Documents will be scanned and saved in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
• Due to copyright restrictions, we can place only 10% or 50 pages (whichever is greater) of a book on electronic reserve. If you need more than that to be available, you can place the entire book on (non-electronic) reserve, and it will be held at the Circulation Desk. If the library doesn't own the book, we can order it. However, it will take longer than the usual two week processing time to make the item available to students. Please give us as much time in advance as you possibly can. 

5. All books and audiovisual items will be placed on reserve at the Circulation Desk for the time period specified. These types of reserves can be checked out for 2 hours and must be used in the library.

6. Access to electronic material will be limited to the students and faculty of Northwestern University and will only be available for the specified time. Electronic Reserves require a NetID sign-in, and should be available through eMerg or Blackboard, depending on where your course resides.

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We must follow the copyright guidelines set out by the Fair Use Statute of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976.

The impact this has on course reserves, especially electronic reserves, is that we may have to obtain copyright permission from the copyright holder before we place an item on electronic reserve. This will be necessary if the use of the reserve item falls outside the Fair Use Statute. This will increase processing time, so the sooner you give use your reserves, the more likely we will be able to make them available by the time your students need them. Reserves requiring copyright permission will not be available to students until copyright permission has been obtained. If a journal article is available electronically through a library subscription, we will post a link to that article, and copyright permission will not be required.

For more information on this, please see: http://copyright.columbia.edu/copyright/fair-use/

For a checklist of factors to consider in determining Fair Use factors, please see: http://copyright.columbia.edu/fair-use-checklist

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This page last updated Oct 9, 2009.