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Covid-19: Options for Library Resources & Services

Library services during the period of limited operations

Online Course Reserves
& other materials to support instruction

University Libraries recommends electronic course reserves for fall, submit requests by July 24.

We are asking campus instructors for help with planning for fall course resource needs, specifically with our effort to move to electronic course reserves for fall 2020 due to Covid-19. We recognize that there may be many circumstances unique to each situation and we are ready to help.

Key Dates: Requests submitted by or before July 24 should be accessible by the first day of fall classes. Requests submitted after July 24 will be added when possible but may face delays.

The problems with physical reserves: University Libraries anticipates being open limited hours for browsing and checking out materials in the fall, but the use of physical collections presents concerns. There is incomplete and inconclusive information about virus survival on common library materials (books, journals, media cases). Current guidance from professional organizations is to quarantine library materials for 72 hours, which means that items would not be available for 3 days after they are returned, preventing timely access for many students. Transitioning physical reserves, where possible, to online course materials will help students with the many courses planned for online delivery this fall and especially when UNM moves to all online course delivery in November. It will also help if students are not close to campus or if we face rapid, unplanned shifts to online teaching and learning.

How we can help: We ask for your help transitioning fall course reserves material to electronic format to the greatest extent possible and in accordance with fair use for those materials that are copyright protected. We can support your classes in many ways, including:

  • providing persistent URLs for our digital resources
  • identifying licensed and open educational resources that meet course needs
  • scanning portions of print materials within fair use and providing pdfs 
  • identifying streaming options for some DVDs owned by the library
  • licensing available streaming media as requested by instructors 

We recognize that each course may present unique circumstances. Please help us help you by letting us know your needs as early as possible. Our subject librarians are happy to help as are members of our Course Reserves team. We have posted a new online request form for fall 2020 course materials support and will respond to requests in the order we receive them.

Textbooks: Access to course texts and other resources made freely available by publishers during the spring, including RedShelf and VitalSource, has now been removed. Due to budget constraints, the University Libraries do not purchase required textbooks, however these materials can be requested for Inclusive Access via the UNM Bookstore. Please contact Peg Lewis (peglewis@unm.edu) before July 22nd for additional information.