Faculty and Staff Information

Any items (articles, books, audio cassettes, video cassettes, CDs, DVD's) that are part of the Blinn College Library collection or are part of an instructor's personal collection might be eligible for reserve. Books or other items that are not currently in our collection may be ordered. Please allow 4-6 weeks for us to process book orders.

Some typical kinds of materials instructors place on reserve are:
1. Blinn College library books and DVDs ( from any campus library) 
2. Instructor/division-owned textbooks & study guides
3. Homework solutions, sample exams, and lecture notes supplied by instructor
4. Instructor-owned copies of books, video, or audio materials. These must be legally purchased items.

The following type of material may be placed on reserve for 1 semester: 
1. An issue of a non-library owned journal, magazine, or newspaper
2. Photocopy of a single journal, magazine, or newspaper article
3. Photocopy of a single chapter of a book

Note: For an issue of journal, magazine, or a newspaper article that needs to be kept on reserve for more than one semester, the instructor is responsible for obtaining permission from the publisher. The Copyright Clearance Center is a good place to contact for this purpose.  It is possible that the journal or magazine is available through one of the library databases. If that is the case, instructors can usually provide a link to the article in the database.

Photocopies should be lawfully made. All photocopied materials and individual articles will be stamped with a copyright stamp to indicate that they are subject to copyright law, unless they are in the public domain (see the Copyright and Plagiarism LibGuide for more information on how to tell if an item is in the public domain).

Items borrowed from another library. (Outside the Blinn College Library system)

Items that are considered "consumable" may not be placed on reserve without prior written copyright permission. For example: Workbooks, standardized tests, test answer sheets, printed exercises, printed items that are designed to be removed from their bindings for course work.

Professor-created anthologies or course packets of readings, unless created with the permission of the copyright holders or comprised solely of materials in the public domain. Note that anthologies may also be defined as a compilation of sound or video clips.

If an item to be placed on reserve does not meet fair use guidelines, the library and the instructor will determine together whether to purchase an authorized copy or seek copyright permission for the unauthorized copy. The instructor will seek the permission and pay the associated fees. If the copyright holder denies permission, the library cannot put the item on reserve.

Reserve items can have different loan periods:

• 1 hour (in library use only)
• 2 hour (in library use only - most reserves are set at this loan period)
• 1 day
• 2 day
• 3 day
• 7 day

RELLIS Campus reserves have a two hour checkout but are restricted to the LRC. 

Many items can remain on reserve until no longer needed. At the end of each semester, the Library sends out E-mail notices to each instructor who has items on reserve. The instructor should reply to this email to verify which items should be retained and which removed from reserves. If there is no response from the instructor, the reserve items will usually be retained.

Photocopied articles and chapters from books can remain on reserve for no more than one (1) semester without written permission of the copyright holder. The Library must receive a copy of this written permission, which will be kept as long as the item is on reserve.

If you have any questions about the reserve policy, please contact Janice Lapaglia at (979) 209-7277 or Linda Gray at (979) 830-4251

Some common questions regarding copyright and Fair Use are provided in the Copyright & Plagiarism LibGuide.