Course Reserves Services

• Book Selections
• Sending Files
• Journal Articles
• Full-text Articles
• Scanning PDF Documents
• Links to External Websites/Documents

Complete the online Electronic Reserve Request Form.

How can I reactivate Electronic Reserves that I've used before?

University Park and World Campus instructors: bring or send photocopies of all materials to be scanned (see below for exceptions) to the Reserve Reading Room, W113 Pattee Library.

As a general rule, we can scan/post no more than 15% of the total pages in a book or monograph. We can post more than 15% of works that are in the Public Domain, and works for which the rightsholder consents to the use of a larger amount in writing.

We will accept .html, .doc, .rtf, .ppt and other documents in electronic format, such as course syllabi, reading lists, lecture notes, sample student assignments, etc. The PDF files produced from these formats are generally of much higher quality and smaller file size than if the same documents were scanned.

Files may be sent as email attachments to ereserves@psulias.psu.edu.

• Please send files in batches of no more than four files per email.
• Please use logical file names that can be readily matched with the citations.

Note: As we have a great deal of experience at balancing accessibility (i.e. file size) and image quality, we generally prefer to scan all documents ourselves. If you prefer to scan your own documents, please review the following tips.

File size is important to keep in mind when scanning, particularly for students accessing e-reserves off-campus, possibly through a dial-up connection. We recommend that files be no larger than 1 MB:

• Avoid scanning in color unless it is necessary to understanding the material: The large file size of a color document can cause downloading and printing problems.
• Pages with all text: Scan these pages at a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) using the black-and-white bitmap/line art/text/monochrome setting (the name of the setting varies by manufacturer).

This setting converts every pixel to either white or black, depending on where it falls on the spectrum between these extremes. This produces clear contrast between text and background, and a relatively small file.

• Pages with images: Scan these at 200 dpi using the grayscale/image/text & image setting.

This setting preserves the 256 shades of gray between black and white recognized by most scanners, and thus reproduces images like paintings and photographs much more accurately. However, the recognition of 256 shades (versus two with the black-and-white setting) yields much larger files.

• Please split documents of more than 20 pages into two or more files of no more than 20 pages each.

We can scan/post no more than 2 articles from any single issue of a journal or magazine that is not available online either through the University Libraries' licensed resources or on the open Web.

We can create durable links to full-text articles available through many, but not all, databases including:

We may link to any number of articles in a single issue of a journal/magazine available through a licensed database.

Use The CAT or the E-Journal Title Search to determine if a journal or periodical is available through one of the University Libraries' licensed databases. (Note: If your search is successful, be sure to check that the Coverage Dates range includes the volume/year you're looking for.)

Photocopies are not required for articles available through a licensed database.

We can create e-reserves that link to any website or document that is freely available (i.e. does not require registration) online.

When requesting a webpage, please include the URL in the Electronic Reserve Request Form.

Note: If a webpage is removed or relocated, please contact your Course Reserves staff. We will restore access to the page as soon as possible.

Photocopies are not required for links to webpages.