Electronic course reserves 

This fall (2003) the library is beginning to provide some course reserves in electronic format, although the great majority of our reserves will continue to be in traditional format at least through this academic year. We are initiating this venture in part to address demonstrated student preference for electronic resources that they can access not just in the library, in part to keep up with what other academic libraries are doing (to be competitive), and in part to prepare for Millikin's beginning forays into distance education. 

Providing reserve materials for course readings is of course a service that the library already provides for all traditional-format resources, and the extension into offering some of these course reserves also in electronic format is a natural service for us to provide for those who want it. Some faculty are willing to spend the time, along with being comfortable enough with the technology, to create electronic course readings themselves, such as in BlackBoard. However, even while they recognize that students would appreciate and use electronic readings, other faculty would rather that the library performed the management tasks involved in creating and providing these materials. We are happy to provide that service.

Electronic reserves will initially encompass primarily digitized periodicals articles and web site URL's that will either be available through a link on the library's web site and/or through the faculty member's BlackBoard site for the class, as per the faculty member's preference. The system can also handle digitized music and video, and we expect to move into those areas too eventually.  We are, in fact, already experimenting with sound files to see how we can add that in streaming format. (We already know that we can provide sound files for downloading, but that approach is too fraught with legal issues for us to go there.)

During the first semester of this service we are working with just a few faculty members, although we expect to extend that significantly in the second semester.  To give you a flavor of what e-reserves are like (for those who have not already used and loved it elsewhere), here is the link to what we have done with the system so far: http://millikin.docutek.com/ 

The first page of the e-reserve system (provided by Docutek software) either leads you directly into the course listings (first link) or provides you with some introductory information (the second link). The first link places you in the Main Course Index where you can look up a course page by academic department, by instructor's last name, or by course name, or you can get a listing of all courses available.

You will notice that electronic course reserves for three regular Millikin classes are available for the fall semester, Michael George's EN325 (Shakespeare's Early Works), LaDona Martin-Frost's MH316 (Introduction to Ethnomusicology), and Jeremy Brunk's  MH314 (Twentieth Century Music II). Only the students in those respective courses can access the materials for those courses, for copyright reasons (the instructors provide passwords). 

However, so that you can see what an actual listing of reserve materials look like, and so that you can experience how easy it is to access these readings, I have created a fictional Scandinavian Studies course, SC11, that anyone can access (no password required). Go ahead and browse, and then let me know what you think! That's http://millikin.docutek.com/

The system's introductory materials (the second link on the first page) includes tutorials for faculty and librarians, although special log-ins are required to actually make changes within the system. For the foreseeable future, the library will keep handling the electronic part of placing materials on e-reserves, that is, course set-ups as well as document scanning and uploading. We will work directly with any interested faculty member to make sure that the materials are in the right sequence and units. (Several faculty have already expressed an interest in participating next semester!) 

We in the library see offering electronic reserves as complementary to the library's broader role on campus and within the curriculum, one that is consistent with traditional library services, and a service that we can provide for those who feel that they already have enough else to do to prepare and teaching their courses without taking on work that the library has done for them in the past.