Reserves Guide for Students
Accessing Course Reserves
1. Where is the reserves page for my course?
2. Where do I go for print/physical reserves?
3. How do I access E-reserves?
4. How are the materials organized?
5. How can I re-organize the materials?
6. My course has a lot of items. How can I find one quickly?
7. The screen is too crowded because of the Sakai toolbar. What can I do?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where is the reserves page for my course?
Step #1 – Log on to Sakai and select the class for which you have been assigned a reading. If your course does not have a Sakai page, you can access them by clicking on Access Course Reserves on the library homepage.
Step #2 – Once on a course’s Sakai page, look to the left sidebar and click on the tab titled “Course Reserves.”
Step #3 – Once you click on this link, you will come to a page that lists all of the reserves items for your class. It will look something like this:
2. What kinds of materials are on reserve?
When looking at the list of reserve items for your class, you will see that each item has an icon. These icons designate whether the item is a PDF, an article, or a physical copy available at a UNC library.
A blue flag (
) indicates that the item is a physical book or article that can be checked out at a UNC library. To find out how to locate this item at the library, select the item from the list of reserves by clicking on the “Show Details” button on the left-hand side.
Once you have selected the item, you will come to a page that tells you the item’s location. This page will show at which library the item is on reserve and the item’s specific location within the library, which comes in the form of a call number. In this example, it’s Davis Library, although there are other locations such as the Media & Design Center, the Art Library, the Health Sciences Library, the Park Library, and the Music Library.
The call number is important to finding your book – to make things easier, write it down or take a screenshot of it on your phone before heading to the library! Once at the library, use this call number to ask for your book.
Note: All reserves items in Davis Library must be requested from the Davis Library Service Desk!
3. How do I access E-reserves?
A PDF symbol (
) indicates that the item is a PDF version of the book or article. To access this item, click on “Show Item” in the leftmost column. This will open the PDF in a new tab.
The same applies for web links, which are indicated by a small Web Browser Icon (
).
4. How are the materials organized?
If you have been assigned a specific chapter or article, please note that all reserves items are categorized by the title of the book or journal that they come from, rather than the chapter or article title. Chapter titles will appear beneath the book’s title, and articles will appear beneath the journal’s title. In the picture below, the reading “Water Safety Plans” is listed below the title of the book it comes from, The Routledge Handbook of Water and Health.
5. How can I re-organize the materials?
When viewing reserves items, you have the ability to sort the items. To do so, go to your course’s Library/Reserves page and find the sorting drop-down box, which should be located in the top left-hand corner.
From there, you can sort by the items’ titles and authors.
To sort the items by one of these categories, simply click on the option you would like.
6. My course has a lot of items. How can I find one quickly?
There’s a search bar at the top of every column on the page listing the materials. You can search by Title or Author.
7. The screen is too crowded because of the Sakai toolbar. What can I do?
There’s a way to minimize the Sakai toolbar, which will provide access to the full screen. Look for the small blue arrow at the very bottom of the toolbar (circled below). Click on it to minimize the Sakai toolbar.
