How to request books for Reserve (3-hour loan)

The Library uses Resource Lists to manage items in Reserve collections. Print books prioritised as ‘Essential’ will be made available for 3-hour loan, up to a maximum of five copies per title.

If you are creating or updating a Resource List yourself

• Add an ‘Essential’ priority tag to the relevant citations
• When you have finished all editing, click the ‘Request Library Review’ button

If the Library is creating or updating your Resource List

• Highlight the books that are 'Essential' reading
• Use the online form to send it to the Library

What happens next?

We automatically check every book citation highlighted or tagged as ‘Essential’. If no suitable e-book is available to purchase and you did not specify any chapters for digitisation, Library teams will move items from the general collections to Reserve and / or order more copies.

The ratio we use is 1 book per 20 students, with a maximum of 5 copies per title on 3-hour loan and any additional copies located in short or standard loan. 

Requesting book moves to Reserve after Semester has started

If you want to move books to Reserve during the academic year:

• Add an ‘Essential’ priority tag
• Click on the citation and open the Library Discussion in the right-hand panel
• Add a note in the expandable box with any specific instructions for book purchases or moves
• Click on ‘Submit comment’
• When you have finished all editing, click the ‘Request Library Review’ button.

If you do not have a Resource List

You can ask the Library to set one up for your course. Please send an annotated reading list to the Library using the online form or contact Library.Learning@ed.ac.uk