Navigating UCLA Library Course Reserves: A Comprehensive Guide

UCLA Library Course Reserves provide essential materials for students, ensuring access to required readings and resources. Instructors can request various materials, including print books, ebooks, course readers, and select video and audio resources, making them available to students through the Library. This article provides a detailed overview of UCLA Library Course Reserves, covering request procedures, copyright considerations, and important deadlines.

What are Course Reserves?

Course Reserves are materials that an instructor of a course has requested to be made available to their students via the Library. These materials can be print books, ebooks, course readers, and select video and audio resources. The primary goal is to provide easy and equitable access to readings and other materials essential for coursework. Most of these materials are already owned by the Library, but if they are not owned, library staff will work with instructors to either purchase a library copy or circulate the instructor's personal copy on a temporary basis.

Types of Materials Available

UCLA Library Course Reserves encompass a variety of formats to cater to different academic needs:

Print Books: Physical copies of textbooks and other relevant books.
Ebooks: Electronic versions of books accessible online.
Course Readers: Paper-bound collections of materials that are selected and arranged by an instructor for a particular class.
Audio and Video Reserves: Select audio and video resources, primarily provided by the Music Library.

Requesting Course Reserves

Instructors play a vital role in the Course Reserves system by identifying and requesting the necessary materials for their courses. The process involves several key steps to ensure timely and effective access for students.

Submission Deadline

The deadline to submit course reserve requests for SPRING QUARTER 2026 is MARCH 4, 2026. Submitting requests well in advance of the quarter's start date is crucial to allow library staff sufficient time to process the requests. Please note that items submitted late might not be processed in time for your course's need.

Requesting Process

Identify Required Materials: Instructors should compile a list of all materials they want to make available through Course Reserves.
Check Library Holdings: Before submitting a request, instructors should check whether the Library already owns the required materials. If you are unsure of any of this information, please look up the item in WorldCat or UC Library Search.
Submit a Request: Submit the list of materials to the library.
Copyright Compliance: Before requesting content be uploaded to your course, please note that instructors are responsible for ensuring content uploaded to their courses complies with copyright law. You will need to select a copyright declaration before submitting your request. Please review all copyright declarations carefully before making a selection.

Copyright Considerations

Copyright law plays a significant role in determining what materials can be made available through Course Reserves, particularly for online content. Instructors must ensure that their use of copyrighted materials complies with fair use principles and other relevant regulations. You will need to select a copyright declaration before submitting your request. Please review all copyright declarations carefully before making a selection. I confirm that my usage of this copyrighted material is fair use.

Using Personal Copies

Instructors have the option of using their personal copies of books or course readers for Course Reserves. This can be particularly useful for materials that the Library does not own or cannot acquire in time.

Procedure for Using Personal Copies

Submit a Request: After your list is submitted to the library.
Drop-off: Bring your personal copy to Powell Library's circulation desk on the 2nd floor of the building. Powell acts as a dropoff and pickup location for all personal copies brought in by instructors.
Processing: It may take a couple days for your personal copy to be processed, but most personal copies are available for circulation within a week.
Circulation: The personal copy will be circulated to students for the duration of the quarter. Depending on your course's subject and the location where your other course materials will be circulated, your personal copy/course reader may not necessarily be circulated at Powell Library. Updated location information for your personal copy will be visible in your reading list.
Return: At the end of the quarter, library staff will reach out to you when your personal copy is ready to be picked up from Powell Library's circulation desk.

Important Considerations for Personal Copies

When returned to you, your personal copy will have library tape, call numbers, and barcodes attached to its cover and binding. While this ensures that the book can be easily identified and tracked within the library system, instructors should be aware of these alterations.

Loan Periods and Access

To maximize access for all students, physical course reserves have their loan periods shortened (usually to 2 hours) to accommodate for high demand. This ensures that more students have the opportunity to use the materials.

Physical Reserves

Once requested, items belonging to UCLA Library's stacks will be relocated to their respective unit's reserves collection and have their loan periods shortened to 2 hours at a time. If an item is checked out when requested, it will be recalled.

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Online Reserves

Items made available online do not have loan periods enforced by the library, but may have user-access limits enforced by the license. Instructors should link to source materials as much as possible.

Music Library Resources

UCLA Library only processes audio/video reserve requests for Music courses or courses with a significant Music component. These requests are all processed by the Music Library. Audio reserves and select video reserves are provided by the Music Library.

Purchasing Materials

If the Library does not own a required item, library staff will work with instructors to either purchase a library copy. Please note that purchases can take up to 4-6 weeks to process. Because of this, we do not accept purchase requests submitted after Week 3 of the requested quarter. Some titles are not available for library ebook purchase.

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