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For Faculty : Electronic Reserves

Electronic Reserves allow you to place a variety of materials in a password protected online environment for your students to access. Your paper or electronic documents are turned into PDF files that will be accessible from wherever your students have access to the Internet. If you have never used Electronic Reserves before, you will need to contact Thelma Hutchins, Director of the Library at 367-4122 or thelma.hutchins@fairmontstate.edu to get an e-reserve faculty account created for you.

TO CREATE A SPACE IN E-RESERVES FOR A COURSE:

  1. From the library homepage at http://library.fairmontstate.edu click on ELECTRONIC RESERVES
  2. Click on: ADMIN FUNCTIONS
  3. Enter your faculty username & password that you received from Ms. Hutchins when your faculty account was created
  4. Click on: CREATE A NEW COURSE
  5. Follow the instructions and supply the appropriate information when prompted.
    Please note that you will be instructed to create a “course page password.

This password must be different from the one you use to access your faculty account in e-reserves. Use the KISS method for creating passwords: Keep it Short and Simple. Try to avoid long passwords, passwords that have both upper and lower case letters, and/or passwords that are more than one word. Regardless of the password you choose, please be sure to supply it to all your students.

TO CONVERT A PAPER DOCUMENT INTO A PDF FILE & ADD IT TO YOUR COURSE SPACE IN E-RESERVES:

  1. Documents must be faxed in to the Docutek server. Contact Linda Bartic (lbartic@fairmontstate.edu) at the library’s Circulation Desk at 367-4733 for assistance with getting this done. If you would like to do this step yourself, the fax number for Docutek from off campus is (304) 367-4591. If you are on campus, just dial 4591.
  2. Once the documents have been faxed, go to the Electronic Reserves homepage and click on ADMIN FUNCTIONS. Log in as usual.
  3. Click on the course you would like to add the document to
  4. Click on: ADD A DOCUMENT OR LINK
  5. Click on: ADD A FILE-BASED DOCUMENT
  6. Click on: RETRIEVE A FAXED DOCUMENT
  7. Select the document you want by clicking in the circle to the left of its file name. To confirm the file contains the document you want, click on its file name
  8. Click on: CONTINUE
  9. Type in the document’s title, and the number of pages in the document.
  10. Click on: CONTINUE. You’ll get a confirmation message that the document was added to your course space.

Please note: the document will appear in e-reserves exactly as the paper copy looks. If there are smudges, creases, hand-written notations, dark splotches from the photocopier, etc. they will appear in e-reserves. Be aware that if a document is hard to read in its paper form, it will be even harder to read in electronic form.

TO ADD A FILE TO YOUR E-RESERVE SPACE:

You can add any type of file to e-reserves, such as MS PowerPoint, MS Word, MS Excel, etc. However, please take into consideration whether or not students will be able to open and view the files you upload from their home computers. If you are using MS Office 2007, many students and some campus PCs do not yet have this software.

  1. Log in as usual and go to the Page Management screen for your course
  2. Click on ADD A DOCUMENT OR LINK
  3. Click on ADD A FILE-BASED DOCUMENT
  4. Click on TRANSFER FILES. A new window pops open
  5. Click on BROWSE. Find your file from its location on your C drive, A drive, etc . The file name will appear in the text box
  6. Click on TRANSFER. From this window, you can transfer multiple files from your computer to e-reserves before adding them to your course space
  7. When you are finished transferring your files, click on DONE. The window will close.
  8. Click on CONTINUE
  9. Select the file(s) you want to add to your course space by clicking on the box next to the file name(s)
  10. Add the appropriate title, password, and number of pages for the file(s) you selected
  11. Click on CONTINUE. You will get a confirmation message.

OTHER ITEMS YOU CAN PLACE IN YOUR E-RESERVE SPACE:

  • Links to specific web pages
  • Links to specific articles in the FSU library’s database collection.

TO UPDATE EXISTING INFORMATION FOR A COURSE SPACE YOU HAVE ALREADY CREATED:

  1. Go to the Electronic Reserves homepage and click on ADMIN FUNCTIONS. Log in as usual.
  2. Click on the link for the course you want to modify
  3. Click on: MODIFY PAGE INFO
  4. Follow the instructions and supply the appropriate information when prompted

Link to a Document in E-Reserves from Blackboard Vista

Within Blackboard Vista you can:

  • Create a link to the E-Reserve student login page for your particular course space
  • OR You can link directly to specific articles in your course space.

To find out the URL for this login page or the article:

  • Go to Electronic Reserves on the library’s homepage
  • Click on "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials"
  • Locate the course space to which you would like to link, by selecting your name from the instructor’s list
  • Click on the course name/number
  • The screen that you now see is the login screen. Go to the address bar in your web browser and copy (control c) the URL (if you want your students to log into Electronic Reserves.)
  • OR go another step and click on the article title for which you want a link, and copy that URL from the top of your web browser’s screen.

Now log into your Blackboard Vista course and locate the place in the course where you would like to place the link to E-Reserves. The recommended way is:

1. Build --> Learning Module

From the Learning Module screen, click “Add Content Link,” then “Web Link.” The section expands.

  • Click "Create Web Link."
  • In the title text box, enter a title for the URL and add a description if you wish.
  • In the Web Address (URL) box, paste (control v) the Internet address of the E-Reserve article you previously copied.
  • Select whether the URL will open in a new browser window.
  • Click save. The Learning Module screen appears and the URL is added to the bottom of the table of contents. Move it up by using the icon at the left of the item.

2. If you want your URL within a page of content, locate the place in the course where you would like to place the link.

  • Click on "Edit Properties."
  • Enable the HTML creator.
  • Put your cursor where you want the link to be.
  • Click on the "link" icon at the top of the page. A new window opens.
  • Choose the radio button "URL."
  • Control v to paste in the URL.
  • Fill in the “link text” box (what you want the student to see) and click OK.

Copyright Compliance

  • Consumables such as workbooks may not be placed in E-Reserves
  • Entire books cannot be placed in E-Reserves. A maximum of 10% of a book is considered fair use.
  • Appropriate items (such as a journal article or a chapter from a book) may be placed in E-Reserves for one semester. If you plan to use the same item for multiple semesters, you have to get copyright clearance to be in compliance with federal law.
  • For copyright clearance, contact Sharon Mazure at 367-4622 or smazure@fairmontstate.edu. Provide her with the citation(s) for the item(s) for which you need copyright clearance. She will notify you whether the clearance is granted.
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Last Modified: 1/23/2008