Services for Faculty

If supply chain issues have interfered with your students having their textbooks in time for the beginning of classes, the library may be able to help provide access to some materials while you wait. Please email us at AskALibrarian@jbu.edu with a list of the books that have been delayed and we can investigate what we are able to provide.

• Reserves:  If the library owns a copy of the book you are using for your class, we can place it on Reserve for in-library use (3 hours at a time).
• Existing Ebook Collections:  If we already have access to the book in one of our ebook collections, we can provide you with a direct link that you can share with your students and information about how to access library ebooks. (Note that some ebooks have limits on the number of simultaneous users.)
• Ebook Acquisition: If we don't already have the book in ebook form, we can investigate whether it is available as an ebook, and if funds are available, we can purchase a copy to provide to your students. Most publishers do not sell ebook licenses to libraries for the books that they market as textbooks, but if you are using a trade or academic book that is not primarily marketed as a textbook, we may be able to acquire ebook access to your students.

If the library doesn't have and cannot acquire delayed textbooks in time to meet your students' needs, you have some options for making that material available to them:

• Personal Copy on Reserve:  If you have a desk copy of the textbook you're using that you are able to make available to students for a few weeks, we can place your copy in our Reserve collection for students to check out for in-library use. Your book can be returned to you at the end of the semester, or sooner if you request. (Please give us one day's notice before you come to pick it up so we can remove it from our system.)
• Blackboard:  Providing PDFs of the first few chapters of a book that students have already ordered but have not yet received is widely recognized as being within the bounds of Fair Use under U.S. copyright law. If you contact the publisher of the book and let them know about the situation, they may even provide you with a PDF to use for this purpose. Best practice is to share the PDF on Blackboard, not the open web; to provide only as much as students need to tide them over until their own books arrive; and to take down the PDF once the books have arrived. If you have questions about copyright and educational use, you can email us at AskALibrarian@jbu.edu.