Letter to the Editor: The Truth about E-reserves

A few points of clarification are required in response to the Chronicle staff editorial on Monday, Nov. 17 E-reserves are on the move.

Although the library, a long-time provider of e-reserves, is advocating BlackBoard as an access point for e-reserves, it is in no way suggesting that faculty members move any of their other course materials into BlackBoard.

The move to BlackBoard is based on the need for the library to comply with copyright with its e-reserves by having access to e-reserves go through an authentication process.

This means that access to e-reserves is limited to participants in the class. Non-students, e.g. guest speakers, may be added by the faculty member. Because BlackBoard currently offers the authentication capacity and because virtually every student (almost 10,000 current users) is familiar with BlackBoard, this seems like a reasonable solution.

However, because the library intends to provide balance and give its users options, the decision to completely cross-over to BlackBoard is extended until Fall 2004.

In the meantime, the library is in the process of implementing a state-of-the art library management system, Ex-Libris, that includes an e-reserves module. If that is ready by the fall, faculty will have two library supported options: BlackBoard or Ex-Libris. In both scenarios, authentication is required.

Finally, faculty are not required to use BlackBoard for their courses, and have a variety of options for making course materials available to students.

The library has a rich tradition of working collaboratively with faculty (and students) to support their teaching and research needs, and has every intention of continuing this partnership.