Did you ever wonder how those eReserves materials show up on your Moodle course pages, and who put them there? There’s more to it than you might think. The staff members in the eReserves department work hard all year round to secure the rights to digitize articles and book chapters that end up on Moodle each quarter. We asked the eReserves team, Joel Stockamp and Natalya Pashkova, to fill us in on what it’s like to work in the eReserves department.
What services are offered by the eReserves Department?
Electronic Reserves, or eReserves, is a service that enables Fuller students and faculty to access book chapters, journal articles, and other short assigned readings, from any location, simply by logging into their course page in Moodle. Before print materials can be digitized and uploaded to Moodle, we have to secure permission from rights holders. This involves contacting publishers and literary estates–a very important process that ensures we follow copyright laws.
What is the difference between Reserves and eReserves?
Reserves are the physical materials selected by instructors that are held behind the Circulation desk. Users may borrow materials placed in physical Reserves for a checkout period of 2 hours.
Remember that the “e” in eReserves stands for “electronic.” eReserves course materials become available to students online a week before the beginning of each term. They can be accessed in Moodle for the duration of each course. The use of eReserves materials is limited by our licensing agreements and permissions as well as by U.S. and international copyright laws. Due to these restrictions, at the end of each term, materials are removed from the eReserves block in Moodle.
If I have trouble accessing an article on eReserves, whom should I contact?
Please contact eReserves staff Joel Stockamp and Natalya Pashkova at [email protected] or 626.396.6065. Our office hours are: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
There are also tutorials on Moodle that explain how to access eReserves materials, under the main tabs “Students” and “Faculty”: https://moodle.fuller.edu/my/
For general Moodle help, you may contact The Office of Distributed Learning at [email protected].
Where can I learn more about copyright information?
A good resource if you want to learn more is the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright: http://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/faq_copyright.html
What do you enjoy about working in the eReserves department?
JOEL: Our department enables students to have access to a more diverse range of materials than they would get if they just relied upon textbooks, and it is rewarding to be a part of that. The field of copyright law is undergoing dramatic changes and reinterpretations due to the introduction of digital materials. Because this is an unsettled argument, this department is able to respond creatively to new and old demands, and this keeps the work fresh.
NATALYA: I love working in a fast paced environment and solving problems. Doing my work well and being creative in this process really makes my day. With the help of today’s technology we are able to bring many library and research resources to users’ fingertips. While the geeky side of my work has its joys and challenges, I enjoy interacting with students and faculty the most. Working with such a knowledgeable and diverse audience is a very rewarding experience.
When we seek permissions from publishers and authors, we often expand our search and contacts around the globe. Currently, we have contacts with many publishers in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia. That means we have to tailor our correspondence in different languages. Our multilingual colleagues in the Hubbard Library often give us a hand with writing correspondences in other languages.
As any librarian, I like to seek and find information that is not easily obtainable. Sometimes a process of locating copyright holders and negotiating agreements with them requires thinking outside the box and pursuing different paths. Just recently, I have secured copyright permissions from a Fuller alumnus, a former British Ambassador, and an agency that handles permissions and licenses for the literary estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If some day you become an author, the Fuller eReserves office might contact you.
