Academic Reserves

Overview

The main purpose of a Reserve Desk is to maintain a special collection of materials circulated to students in specific courses. Items in this reserve collection may be from the library’s main collection, loaned to the library from an instructor, or through interlibrary loan. The physical location of circulating reserve material is usually restricted to the library itself. To allow access by the largest number of students, the loan period of reserve materials is often short (1-2 hours).

The Academic Reserves module is similar to the Circulation module because it requires the user, item, course, and reserve records to be updated constantly. All reserve materials must be linked with a reserve control record. The reserve control record is linked to the item record using the item’s call number or item ID, and contains information about the associated Reserve Desk policy and circulation rule. Each reserve control record is also linked with individual instructor/course reserve records, which are linked with associated user (instructor) records and course records. Hold records are also often used to place holds on items at a Reserve Desk.

These records work together to perform a variety of circulation functions. Some of these functions are performed by staff members, and others are performed automatically by SirsiDynix Symphony as directed by the system’s policies and configuration. Functions in the Academic Reserves module operate closely with Catalog Access, Cataloging, Circulation, and Workstation functions.

Wizards

You can use the following wizards to perform a variety of Reserve Desk functions.

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Reserve Session Settings Wizard

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Checkout Wizard

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Discharge/Checkin Wizard

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Renew Reserve Wizard

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Receive Reserve Wizard