Course Reserves

Physical and digital course materials are chosen by instructors to support teaching and learning.

Digital Reserves are available online at any time and can include links to eBooks, journal articles, and book chapters, as well as links to full length or excerpted audio visual material. Digital course materials are accessible directly through Moodle and Blackboard.

Physical Reserves materials are UMass Libraries owned or instructor provided items that are made available for a short term loan in person.

Not sure what to choose or need more information? Contact Reserves staff for help.

Need assistance finding materials to put on reserve for your course? Please contact your academic liaison.

Want to find out more about open educational resources available freely and openly for anyone to use?

There is a wide variety of material on physical or digital reserve for UMass Amherst courses requested by your instructors.
You can search for physical reserves in Discovery, the main search box on the Libraries home page, by entering your instructor’s name, the course number as it appears in Spire (i.e., Econ 101), or the title/ISBN of the book.  Once you’ve found the call number, bring it to the Learning Commons desk on the lower level of the Du Bois Library. Reserve materials can be borrowed for 4 hours at a time.  If there are no search results, please consult your syllabus or instructor to confirm that there are materials on physical reserve for your course.

Digital course materials are available through your course’s Moodle or Blackboard page.
After checking your syllabus, please contact Reserves staff with any questions.

Instructors of UMass Amherst courses can put a wide variety of material on physical or digital reserve.

Information about UMass Libraries’ digital course materials: this can include scanned book chapters and journal articles, links to electronic databases and eBooks, and links to full length or excerpted audiovisual material

• Available to students directly from your LMS course page 24 hours a day
• Free for students to use

We can help you provide access to UMass Amherst Libraries’ digital course material directly to your Moodle, Blackboard, or Canvas page:

• Instructions for adding the UMass Libraries Course Materials block to Moodle
• Instructions for adding the UMass Libraries Course Materials block to Blackboard
• Instructions for adding the UMass Libraries Course Materials block to Canvas

Information about UMass Libraries’ physical course materials: this can include library owned books, journals and scores, instructor supplied copies of textbooks and class notes, as well as library owned and instructor supplied audiovisual materials.

• Available for checkout at the library whenever the library is open
• Free for students to use
• Fill out a physical reserve request form below

Physical materials can include:

• Library owned books, journals and scores.
• Instructor supplied copies of textbooks, and class notes.
• Library owned and instructor supplied audiovisual material.

We are happy to consider requests to purchase new materials, but we may not be able to order textbooks, due to their high cost and short shelf life.

Please note:

• All requests will be processed in the order they are received.  Staff will make every effort to insure material is available as soon as possible.
• Items not accessible from the UMass Libraries, including purchases or items from other libraries, may result in delayed availability.

Material will be available for checkout for 4 hours, whenever the library is open.