Faculty FAQ - Books and other materials on Reserves

1. How do I order books and/or other materials for reserves?
2. What is the procedure for placing library items on reserves?
3. What do I do with personal copies that I want to place on reserves?
4. What are the various options for reserves?
5. What are the reserve facilities available to students?
6. Can I book the 3rd floor Seminar room?
7. How do I authorize my students to make photocopies?

1) How do I order books and/or other materials for reserves?
All book orders and/or requests for audio-visual materials can be made through our Reserves Purchase Request Form.

  • Orders must be placed at least 4-6 weeks before the beginning of the new semester, or we cannot guarantee your items will be available at the start of your course.
  • The library does not order multiple copies of titles.
  • Please check to see if the library owns the texts you have ordered through the bookstore. If not, let us know so that we can consider purchasing them for our collection.

2) What is the procedure for placing library items on reserves?
You can send the list of library books you want us to place on reserves by email to bryant@bard.edu.

  • YOU MUST INCLUDE AUTHOR NAME, TITLE, and CALL NUMBER so that we will be sure to use the correct edition. Please check the catalog first to make sure the item belongs to Stevenson (Main), and not BGC or CCS.
  • Please include your name, course number/title with each request you submit.
  • If you wait until the last minute to place books on reserves, items might be checked out by your students.
  • If you want to make sure that items are placed correctly on regular reserves, bring items to the Reserves Office or ask the student at the Reserve desk to pass them on to the office.
  • If you want to save time, you can pull books from the shelves yourself and bring them over to the office with your name, course number/title.

3) What do I do with personal copies that I want to place on reserves?
Personal Copies can simply be brought in with a note with your name and course title/number. Though we do all we can to ensure the proper treatment of these items, the library cannot take responsibility for loss or damage to them.

4) What are the various options for reserves?
The following options are available for course reserves. Except for overnight items, students cannot take reserve materials (including Videos, DVDs and CDs) out of the building, unless authorized by a faculty member.

3-HOUR CLOSED RESERVES:
This is the default status for all reserves for students. Materials circulate from the reserve desk for 3 hours and cannot be taken out of the library. Only one item may be checked out at a time. Faculty members may check out more than one item at a time and can take reserve materials out of the library. Check-out time of reserve materials for Faculty is 3 days. If you plan to keep materials longer than 3 days, please contact the Reserves Office.

OVERNIGHT RESERVES:
Materials circulate during the day the same as 3-hour closed reserves and will only be recognized as an OVERNIGHT item as of 10:00 pm. Items are due back by 10:00am the next morning. This option is available for books only.

OPEN RESERVES:
Open reserves are located in Room 303. This room is furnished as a reading room. Please note that because of space limitations and loss of materials, Open Reserves are restricted to art, photography and theatre books. Though their location is changed to ‘Open Reserves’ in the library computer system, they do not get checked out and Reserve workers do not regulate their availability. The Open Reserve option is intended primarily for books that students might wish to have more than one of at a time for purposes of comparison and reference.

5) What are the reserve facilities available to students?
On the 3rd floor of the Stevenson library, there is the possibility to listen to music in the music room (308) which may be booked for 2 hours at a time using a sign up sheet. Earphones can be checked out together with music CDs. Also available for check out are one video player, as well as one combination video/DVD player. If the seminar room (302) -which is equipped with a combination video/DVD player- is being used, patrons may use the music room or Open Reserves room for viewing purposes.

6) Can I book the 3rd floor Seminar room?
Although we try to keep the 3rd floor Seminar room (302) free for video and DVD viewing in as much as possible, you can contact the Reserves Office (bryant@bard.edu) to find out whether you can use the Seminar room for a particular occasion.

7) How do I authorize my students to make photocopies?
The only students who may be given access to the third floor copier are those enrolled in creative
writing courses or those workstudy students who are faculty assistants. Please email the student's
name(s) to bryant@bard.edu. Students need to get a validation sticker on the back of their I.D. in
order to use the copier. The sticker must be renewed every semester.