Reserves Office is located in HA-112, behind the Circulation/Reserves Desk.

Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Ares (Electronic Reserves) - available 24/7 through BlackBoard

Physical Reserves are located behind the Circulation Desk. Your students may access your Reserve materials by presenting their One Card at the Circulation Desk.

Desk Hours: same as the Library

Contact us:
eresmanager@fitchburgstate.edu
(978) 665-3063

Jordanna Lawton, Public Services Associate
(978) 665-3762

Course Reserves

The Course Reserve Service is provided for all Fitchburg State faculty and students in on-campus, distance learning and extended campus programs. It consists of two components: the physical Reserves Desk and Ares, Electronic Reserves.

Reserves Desk

The Reserves Desk (also part of the Circulation Desk) is a physical location where faculty provide books (personal copies and/or library copies), articles, CDs, videos, special equipment such as microscopes, etc. for student use within the Library or for short loans. Students access your physical Reserves by presenting their One Card at the Circulation Desk.

Reserve items are maintained on the shelving located behind the Circulation Desk. The items are placed under the name of the professor or department that requested they be put on reserve. All reserve items are listed online in our Library Catalog, click on Physical Reserves and search by professor or course name.

Ares, Electronic Reserves

Ares, an electronic reserves service, is available for Fitchburg State faculty. Library staff can scan your printed materials (within copyright allowances) and load the documents/files onto Ares or you may email your files to us to load. This is a password protected system which you can use alone or embed your Ares course link in to Blackboard or Elluminate.

Courses Using Both Physical Course Reserves and Ares

Any professor who has a course that has some items available at the Reserve Desk and other items available online through Ares will have the materials cross-referenced in both areas so that your students will always see a complete list of the reserve items for that course.

Access to Course Reserves Desk

• Students MUST present their Fitchburg State One Card at the Circulation Desk.
• Tell the circulation assistant the name of the professor and the title of the book/article/item desired. A list of professors and the items they have on Reserve is available on the Library's Catalog, click on the Course Reserves tab.
• Reserve Items are to be used in the Library only. These can not be checked out overnight, unless the professor has specified otherwise. The items that do circulate have a short loan period of 1 day or 1 week; due dates are strictly enforced with a late fine of $2 per day per item assessed on items returned late.
• Reserve Items that are "in-library use only" must be returned to the Circulation Desk prior to closing.
• Students may be limited as to the number of Reserve Items they can sign out at one time from the same professor to ensure that all students have a chance to access the material.
• If a student has overdue items or unpaid fines/lost fees on his/her account, borrowing privileges (including the use of Reserve items) will be blocked until the account balance has been cleared.

Student Access to Area

• Go to our Ares through BlackBoard.
• Click on Electronic Reserves and Course Materials
• There are several ways to find your course reserves:
• By Department - Click on the arrow to see a complete list of departments, select the one you want and click on go.
• By Instructor - Click on the arrow to see a complete list of professors, select the one you want and click on go.
• Ares QuickSearch (Lets you search by Course name or number, document title and document author.) - Type in the information you know and select the field to be searched, then click on search.
• The screen will display a list of 1 or more courses that match what you searched. If you search by instructor, and your professor has more than 1 class with reserve items, you will need to click on your course.
• If the course is password protected, you will be prompted to enter your Ares password (the course password will be given to you by your professor). Next you will see a copy right notice; you must click on the "Accept" button in order to continue.
• Once in the course, you will see a list of all the documents on reserve for your course. To access the full text electronic reserve documents, click on the link. Please note: Many documents are in PDF file formats, which means that you must have PDF reader software on your computer in order to open them. In the right hand column of your Ares screen under Fitchburg State Links there is a link to a free version of Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader which you can download from the Internet. Web (htm/html) files will open through any web browser. Documents in other formats such as MS Word or PowerPoint require either that software or a compatible reader software on your computer in order to view the document.

If you have trouble accessing an Ares course or document, please contact us at 978-665-3063 or eresmanager@fitchburgstate.edu.