Course Reserves

Contact Reserves

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Get reserves help

Reserves staff are available Monday — Friday, 9am–5pm:

Perkins Course Reserves

Jeremy Martin
perkins-reserves@duke.edu
(919) 660-5887

Lilly at Bishop's House Course Reserves

David Felton
lilly-requests@duke.edu
(919) 660-5954

Music Course Reserves

Sarah Griffin
music-requests@duke.edu
(919) 660-6937

Materials for required reading, viewing, or listening are placed on reserve at the request of an instructor. For most courses, students can access these reserve materials through their course site in Canvas.

  • Most journal articles, eBooks, and streaming video/audio are available electronically directly through a course site in Canvas
  • Physical materials such as books, top textbooks, music scores, or DVDs may be listed in Canvas but are held for use at a specific library on campus; physical items are typically available for 3-hour loans, to allow multiple students to use them in a given day

For students

Access reserves in Canvas

  • Find course reserves in the navigation sidebar of your course's Canvas site
  • Request that a textbook be purchased for reserves at Perkins, Lilly at Bishop's House, or the Music Library

For instructors

Instructors can place materials on reserve through the Libraries so that they are readily and equitably available to all students in a course.

  • Placing electronic materials on reserve through the Libraries minimizes risk of copyright infringement. Examples include verifying content's licensing, requesting additional licenses for an item if needed, or requesting additional copyright permissions. Requests for digitized print and media must come through the Libraries and adhere to strict copyright standards for fair use
  • Physical items are typically available for 3-hour loans, to allow multiple students to use them in a given day. This includes the Top Textbooks program
  • Materials not currently owned or licensed by the Libraries that are needed for reserves may be requested for purchase, although additional time is required to fulfill these requests

It is important that instructors understand how the Copyright Act applies to course instruction. To learn more:

Getting started with course reserves in Canvas

In Canvas instructors have a new tool available to communicate with Duke Libraries regarding items they want reserved for students.

Click to expand the steps below to learn how to add course reserves to a course site in Canvas.

To enable the course reserves tool:

  • Log into Canvas
  • Select Courses > Settings from the left sidebar
  • Click the Navigation tab
  • Scroll down the list of available tools and you should see Course Reserves near the bottom
  • Click the three vertical dots to the right of Course Reserves to open a popup menu
  • Click Enable and you should now see Course Reserves grouped near the top with the enabled tools
  • Scroll to the bottom of the list and click Save

Saving should send you back to the Course Details tab of the Settings page. You should now see the Course Reserves tool in the left sidebar.

A course Reading List includes required materials for the given course. This could include books, textbooks, CDs, journal articles, DVDs, and even websites. Individual items or resources on the list are called a Citation. A single course in Canvas can include multiple reading lists.

To create a reading list:

  • Log into Canvas
  • Choose Course Reserves in the left sidebar
  • Click Create new list to create a new reading list from scratch
  • Here, you can choose either Create new list to create a new list from scratch, or, if you have taught a course in the last two years that used Course Reserves, you will also have the option to copy a list from a past course by choosing Select existing list

If you selected Create new list you will be prompted to specify the location for any physical course reserves materials you request for that Reading List: Perkins, Music, or Lilly at Bishop's House. See "Add items to a reading list" below to begin adding items to your list.

If you selected Select existing list:

  • From My lists, click Duplicate list for the list you wish to reuse
  • Leganto will copy the name of the previous list and add the current semester to the name, but you can change the list name on this screen if you prefer
  • Make sure to specify where your Reserves should be managed: Perkins Library, Music Library, or Lilly at Bishop's House
  • Click Create list to duplicate your past list for your course. You will be able to add, edit, or remove items from the list as needed

Items that you add to a course Reading List are called a Citation.

To add items to your reading list:

  • Click the blue +Add button and choose the Search the library option
  • In the search the library window, click on the down arrow to the right of Books & Media and select Catalog in the drop-down menu
  • Type search terms in the search bar or narrow your search using the Advanced search option
  • Add an item to your list by dragging and dropping or by clicking the plus sign and then the Add & Edit button
  • Click the Save button
  • Click the My list is ready button
  • Click Send list to the library

Library Reserves Coordinators will process the list to ensure that the requested items will be available to students.

The Send list to the library selection gives the option to check a box to "Also publish the list to students." For physical course reserves we recommend you do not check the box. Once a library course reserve coordinator has processed your list, they will publish it to make it available to students.

Streaming video reserves

  • Instructors can request films to be made available streaming for a course
  • Titles must be required viewing
  • Access to some streaming reserves may be limited to registered students, faculty, and teaching assistants at Duke University
  • We will purchase or license any requested film, if available

Place streaming video reserve request

Classroom film showing reserves

  • Instructors can request any physical film format (16mm, DVD/Blu-Ray, videocassette) for use in a classroom screening
  • 17 U.S.C. Section 110 provides an exemption to copyright for instructors to perform or display copyrighted materials during in person, face-to-face teaching activities. For example, it is permissible to show a full-length motion picture in class as part of the classroom learning. This exemption does not permit copying or distributing a work — only displaying or performing it during class time. To qualify for the exemption, the performance or display must be made from a legally-obtained copy. Also, the exemption only applies to courses at nonprofit educational institutions

Place classroom film showing reserve request

Request a purchase

  • You can request that Duke Libraries purchase an item for use with course reserves by using Canvas to click the blue +Add button and then choosing the Manual entry or Add using ISBN options
  • Please allow extra time for ordering, shipping and cataloging when an item must be purchased; items that must be purchased from international sources may arrive with significant delays
  • Many commercially available eBooks are not available for purchase by libraries; this is generally true for materials produced by most textbook publishing houses

Course reserves for courses not using Canvas

  • The Libraries can support reserve requests for physical items for courses for which the instructor has chosen not to use Canvas
  • ALL eReserve requests must be submitted through Canvas
  • Items on reserve are available for limited loan periods (typically 3-hour loans), to allow multiple students to use them in a given day

Place request for courses not using Canvas