The NVC Course Reserves Collection is a free service offered by the Northwest Vista College Library to provide our students with limited copies of required materials, and have readily available resources for our Faculty to supplement classroom curriculum throughout the semester.
The NVC Library complies with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 of the United States Code) and reserves the right to remove items from Reserves if they are found to be in violation.
What items can be placed on reserve?
- Original Items or copies purchased by the Instructor or Department
- Student editions of textbooks
- Instructor's own work, including notes and unpublished drafts
- Books, videos and DVDs from the NVC Library circulating collection
- Copyright-compliant reproductions: photcopies or digital scans of a work, or excerpt for which copyright permission has been obtained, or for which "fair use" may be claimed.
What items may not be placed on reserve?
- Instructor's Editions of textbooks
- Complimentary copies of textbooks given to instructors or department for review purposes only
- Items that can be obtained from the library's online databases
- Items from the library's Reference Collection
- Periodicals (current or bound) owned by the library
- Photocopies or items which do not meet copyright compliance guidelines
- Items from other library collections, including those items obtained through normal check-out or interlibrary loan
- Stand-alone photocopies, or copies of "consumable works," such as sample tests, workbooks, etc.
- Items from the NVC Library's Permanent Reserves Collection
When should I place items on reserve?
Instructors may place items on Reserve at any time during the semester. However, to make sure items are available for you and your students, we do recommend that you plan ahead and submit materials or requests at least two weeks in advance to allow time for gathering items and processing.
When are items taken off reserve?
Items on Reserve from the library's circulating collection will be taken down at the end of each semester and put back into circulation. To place back on Reserve Instructors/Departments would need to fill out a updated Course Reserves Request Form.
Original items and items that have appropriate permissions can remain up to one academic year (two consecutive semesters) on Reserve. After that time, Instructors/Department will need to submit an updated Course Reserves Request Form to place these items back on Course Reserves.
Updating these forms on a regular basis will help the library maintain a current, viable and useful Course Reserves Collection by allowing both library staff and instructors/Departments an opportunity to make sure items on Reserve are still needed.
Instructors/Departments can indicate on the Course Reserves Form how they would like items returned to them.
Responsibilities
The NVC Library is responsible for:
- Placing items on reserve at the request of an instructor or department
- When possible, review items placed on reserve to determine, to the best of our abilities, compliance with copyright laws
- Limit access to reserve items to NVC students, faculty and staff
- Placing copyright notices on reserve items
- Removing reserve items as requested by the instructor or department
- When necessary, and to the best of our ability, help answer questions related to Course Reserves and fair use
- Returning items to instructors or departments
- To the best of our abilities, assisting instructors or departments with questions regarding copyright and fair use, or referring appropriate questions to Alamo Colleges Legal Services
NVC Instructors are responsible for:
- Reviewing the current NVC Course Reserves Guidelines and Policy
- Compliance with copyright law and fair use
- If not using the Copyright Clearance Center, obtaining required permission from copyright holders and paying any associated fees
- Placing appropriate citation information on any photocopies/copies provided to the library
Reserve Textbook Policy
While the NVC Library encourages instructors and departments to place a personal copy of their course textbook on reserve for their students, the library does not purchase textbooks as part of its collection.
Reasons for this policy include:
- Limited budget and space. Textbooks need to be updated frequently and need to be removed and replaced every one to two years. This puts an inordinate strain on both library staff and available budget.
- Student access. Students rely heavily on their textbooks throughout the semester and need to have access to them more than the usual library loan period (2-hour, in-library use only for students) will allow.
- Damages and theft. Textbooks and the consumable works within are high demand, high cost items and are often the targets of theft or damage in the library.
