Academic libraries have long offered instructors and students the service of Course Reserves - whereupon (traditionally) an instructor would place course readings at the university library and the library would then provide access to the materials to all students in the class for all the hours the library was open. Such course reserves were kept behind a desk at the library and had a short check-out period (on average 2 hours) and were often library books or bound journals or items from a professor's personal collection.
In this digital age UNC's university libraries still offer traditional Course Reserves - where an instructor can place physical materials on Reserve for their courses and choose a check-out period:
2 hours | 4 hours | 1 day | 3 days | 7 days
More importantly, UNC's university libraries offer Course eReserves for digital materials - which allow students to access materials 24/7 without leaving home. Course eReserves can play an essential role in providing access to affordable course materials - especially for copyrighted materials used under the fair use exception, because the materials a place behind a firewall which improves the argument for the materials being fair use. Learn more about UNC's Course Reserves today!