ONCORES: Online Course Reserve System
About ONCORES
The HSU Library provides a locally developed online course reserve system, called ONCORES, for use by the campus community. ONCORES was implemented during the Fall 1997 semester following the successful completion of a pilot project. Through ONCORES, all students in participating classes have around-the-clock access via the HSU Library Catalog to many of the materials which an instructor has placed on reserve for outside reading. Materials served through ONCORES are password-protected to help ensure that they are used by the target audience, i.e., students enrolled in a particular class, in compliance with established Fair Use doctrine as embodied in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act.
Since the fall of 2002, the Library has been collaborating with the HSU Courseware Development Center to provide access to ONCORES readings through the campus course management system, which presently consists of Moodle. Through this cooperative effort, Library personnel now provide access to electronic reserve readings for both ONCORES and Moodle users, thereby serving faculty regardless of which program they use.
ONCORES Goals and Guidelines
The primary purpose of ONCORES is to provide HSU students with online access to course reserve materials via the world wide web, as requested by HSU faculty. Materials served through ONCORES may include, but are not limited to, journal articles, book chapters, course syllabi, reading lists, lecture notes, examinations, problem sets, or links to other copyright-free web resources.
Some of the advantages of using ONCORES to serve reserve materials include:
- Providing access to course reserve materials 24 hours a day, seven days a week;
- Offering simultaneous access to the same item to any number of students;
- Facilitating access to reserve materials from virtually any personal computer connected to the World Wide Web, regardless of location;
- Offering students a single point-of-entry interface for all online reserve materials, that is, the HSU Library Catalog;
- Providing the capability for pages to be either downloaded or printed for personal off-line use;
- Ensuring that materials are being made available in compliance with established copyright policy.
ONCORES services are available to all HSU teaching faculty in support of regular classes.
Most materials served through ONCORES are either provided in accordance with established HSU policies on Fair Use, or are copyright-free. Copyright-protected materials can only be served outside of the HSU Fair Use policy if the faculty member either holds the copyright on the work, or has obtained permission from the copyright holder to so use that material. The HSU Bookstore provides a fee-based copyright clearance service for the campus community.
ONCORES Services Available from the Library
Library staff are available to provide the following services through ONCORES:
- Retrieving materials, as available, from the HSU Library collection;
- Scanning and converting print materials into Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF);
- Scanning print source materials into Optical Character Recognition (OCR) format;
- Converting scanned OCR materials into Hypertext Markup Language (HTML);
- Creating the necessary records, directories, links, and files within the HSU Library Catalog;
- Providing the campus community with assistance and logistical support in the use of the ONCORES system.
Technical Information
The Library has four computer workstations dedicated to processing readings for the ONCORES and Moodle programs. These stations have been loaded with special software for use in the creating PDF and HTML documents. The Library uses Adobe Acrobat to create PDF documents and OmniPage Pro for OCR/HTML conversion. PDF documents, which comprise the vast majority of documents served through ONCORES, require that a client personal computer be configured with Adobe Acrobat Reader software. That software is available on virtually all personal computers in the Library and in Academic Computing labs across campus. Users can also download the Reader free of charge from the Adobe web site.
Copyright and Fair Use
Reserve readings included in ONCORES and Moodle are served in compliance with the Humboldt State University Copying Policy, and with established Fair Use provisions of the United States Copyright Act. In order to provide protections for copyright holders, while extending access to reserve materials in support of the academic mission of the University, all copyright-protected ONCORES and Moodle reserve readings feature:
- A Copyright Statement - included at the beginning of each reading:
"WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproduction of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of the specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research. If electronic transmission of reserve material is used for purposes in excess of what constitutes 'fair use,' that user may be liable for copyright infringement."
- Password Protection - all ONCORES and Moodle reserve readings are password-protected.
- Access by Instructor Name, Department, and/or Course - using the ONCORES/Reserves search interface to the HSU Library Catalog.
- Full Bibliographic Attribution - a complete bibliographic citation, including author, title, date, source, page numbers, etc., is included at the beginning of all copyright-protected readings.
ONCORES Request Form
Faculty may request online course reserve services by submitting an ONCORES Request Form directly to ONCORES staff either electronically, via campus mail, or in-person. Electronic reserve reading requests submitted to the Moodle program will be forwarded to the Library for processing.
Additional Information
Further information about this service is available via the ONCORES main menu. Questions, suggestions, and comments can be directed to ONCORES staff by e-mail, by telephone at 826-4401, or in person at the Library Reserve Office in Library 110 (behind the Circulation Desk).