Library books, articles, videos and other materials may be placed on hold for a university course at Fondren Library. Course Reserve items have much shorter circulation periods for the duration of the semester. An electronic course reserve system called Ares facilitates electronic materials.
Rice Students
Physical Items (books, DVDs, models, etc.)
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Search the Course Reserves catalog via OneSearch to find out whether your items have been placed on Course Reserves.
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You can search by book title, author, course number (BIOC 201, etc.), course name, or instructor name.
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Ask the circulation staff to retrieve the item for you. Tell them the course number and which item(s) you’d like. You’ll need a valid Rice ID/government-issued photo ID for this.
Electronic Materials (articles, PDFs, web links, etc.)
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Log in to Ares, our Course Reserves Management System, with your NetID and password.
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Find your course by searching for it using your course name, course number, or instructor name.
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Access the link to the specific item.
Policies
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Reserve items are usually kept within the library and have limited loan periods. This allows for fair use. Please refer to the purple label on the item to determine loan period. This is to ensure that those without access to their own copy of the books are able to use the course materials.
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Fines for overdue items on Course Reserves accrue at a rate of $1.00/hr.
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Courses with single copy items on Course Reserves may not be checked out multiple times if there are other waiting student requests.
Rice Faculty
Creating a Reserve Item
- Review the Fondren Library Reserve Policy below.
- Deadlines: July 25 for Fall Semeseter & November 25 for Spring Semester (items do not roll over to next semester), to ensure that materials will be available on reserve for the first day of classes.
- Add materials online in Ares* (electronic course reserves system)
- If applicable, bring any personal materials for Course Reserves to the Circulation Desk
- Make sure to put all requests, even for personal items, in Ares before bringing items to the Circulation Desk.
- Leave the rest to us!
*Materials cannot be processed for course reserves unless they are entered in Ares.
Policy Statement for Placing Materials on Course Reserves
Policy Rev. 08/2019
This policy has been established by the Course Reserves department and the Access Services Manager. Any special circumstances should be brought to the attention of the Access Services Supervisor for Circulation/Course Reserves.
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Readings for Rice University courses are placed on Course Reserves at the request of an instructor, or by an instructor’s designated proxy.
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All items that are to be available on Course Reserves must be entered in the Course Reserves Management System (currently Ares) by the instructor or their designated proxy. Items must be in the CRMS before they can be processed by library staff. Personal materials not entered in the CRMS will not be accepted.
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Books and other materials to be placed on Course Reserves should be requested no later than four weeks before the first day of classes for each semester. This will ensure that materials will be available by the first day of classes.
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Electronic copies of items (PDFs, videos, etc.) hosted by the library are subject to copyright law. Items will not be made available to students until the rights to do so are legally secured, and new rights must be secured each semester an item is hosted. When available, library staff will satisfy requests with web links to items instead of a library-hosted copy.
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Instructors will be notified as soon as possible if an item is not available and will be presented with options for making other arrangements.
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Materials may be added to Course Reserves at any time during the semester as deemed necessary by the course instructor or their designated proxy. Requests made during the semester are usually available within two business days.
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Fondren Library does not accept liability for personal items on reserve. Personal items will need to be marked and labeled during processing.
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All materials are removed from Course Reserves on the last day of the final exam period unless a request to leave them on is received from the instructor prior to that date.
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Personal items will be returned to the instructor’s office or departmental office by library staff after the final exam period, unless a request to have the same material on Course Reserves in subsequent semesters is made prior to the end of finals.