We provide access to course materials requested by instructors for their students.

Covid-19 Updates

Suspension of Physical Reserves Fall 2020

Go to eReserves Site

Reserve Services

Reserve Services at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library support electronic and physical reserves for courses in several academic divisions: Advanced Academic Programs, Carey Business School, Engineering for Professionals, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, and Whiting School of Engineering.

All services are initiated upon request from course faculty.

Electronic Reserves

The library’s eReserve system is integrated with Blackboard. The system organizes readings by course and creates indexing that you can search or sort by author and title; upon request Reserves staff will also organize your readings by assignment week, date, or topic. eReserves readings are available to faculty and enrolled students and may be accessed in two ways:

  • from the course Blackboard site, click on the Ereserves link from the left side pane
  • from the eReserves site

Teaching Assistants:

If you do not have access to eReserves for the courses you are assisting, please contact Reserve Services staff at reserves@jhu.edu.

Formats supported in eReserves:

  • book content up to 15% of a print book’s total length
  • ebooks where available
  • journal articles from licensed databases or print journals
  • streaming videos from licensed databases
  • open internet content determined to be public domain

Faculty:

Should you use eReserves if you are using Blackboard? Consult our detailed Format Guidelines for eReserves and BB

Physical Reserves – COVID-19 Update

To align with the principles of safety and equity outlined in the JHU Return to Campus Instructional Guidelines, The Sheridan Libraries have made the difficult decision to suspend Print Book and DVD Reserves in the MSE Library, Washington Resource Library (1717 Building) and Columbia campuses. The suspension will continue for the 2021 Intersession and Spring 2021 semester. Group viewing rooms in MSEL will remain closed due to the requirements of social distancing.

Why

Safety: to protect Library users, returned Library books and DVDs are quarantined for a period of 24 hours; we believe that print books and DVDs on reserve with short-term loans will not be good candidates for quarantining and safe use.

Equity: Library staff are committed to sustaining services that serve both residential and remote students. Print book and DVD reserves could create a disadvantage for students who choose to participate in their Fall 2020 course from remote locations.

How it will work

In place of physical reserves, to support required books and films, staff will:

  • Provide access to ebooks where ebook format is available.
  • Notify and work with you in cases where digital format is not available
    • Scan assigned content from required print books to cover at least the first weeks of the semester to provide students extra time to acquire their own copies.
    • Explore other solutions for the original selections
    • Connect you with your Liaison librarian to help you consider alternatives to your original selections
  • Provide access where available to licensed streaming for films.

Staff at the MSE Library understand that teaching and learning at JHU will continue to change this fall. We look forward to working with you to identify solutions to support the needs of your students and learning outcomes.

Submission

To request support for Reserves and/or physical reserves, faculty, teaching assistants, instructional designers, and academic department staff are welcome to send syllabi or reading lists to reserves@jhu.edu.

Please include information about your course and organize your assigned materials with full citations and assignment or viewing dates; remember to identify your book-based assignments with pages, chapter numbers or titles, or essay titles. Tell us about your preferences: translations, editions, subtitles versus no subtitles. If the library does not own what you want, we will do our best to acquire it. If you are teaching multiple sections, please inform Reserves staff.

Look at a snapshot of a sample syllabus

Reserves staff also make submission forms available; we recommend the forms for courses with five or fewer books, videos, or readings.

Are you teaching a course from a previous semester and using the same materials? Send us an email and tell us the course number and when you last taught the course. We will make the same materials available for the new semester.

Syllabus Submission Deadline

Summer 2021:

  • May 6, 2021 for courses beginning in May and June
  • June 7, 2021 for courses beginning in July

If your syllabus or reading list is not ready by our suggested submission deadline, please feel welcome to share a working copy, especially of the first several weeks. Reserves staff prioritize work by assignment date and will look at your early-semester assignments first.

Meeting Reserves’ submission deadline gives Reserves staff the best chance to provide support that in turn meets your assignment and viewing requirements.

Resources

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