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The Scarlet & Black

The Scarlet & Black

E-Reserves pilot program takes off

By Leah Lucas 

lucaslea@grinnell.edu

A student initiative passed last fall works to streamline course documents that would typically be in the library’s e-reserve system. The new program seeks to bypass tedious E-Reserve logins and make reading easier for Grinnell students.
“Many library personnel, ITS, Curricular Technology, and Academic Support worked with Ron Chiu and Corina Varlan from the Student Intitiative Committee to make this idea a reality,” according to Richard Fyffe, Librarian of the College.
Over 25 courses have been selected as part of this pilot study this semester, according to Fyffe.
“Our expectation is that we will shift all electronic reserve readings to P-Web beginning with the fall semester,” he said.
Danny Reynold ’15 is in an intro biology course that is part of the pilot program, and although it is still early in the semester and has not used the changes extensively, he appreciates the change.
“The program could make it easier to study, because you will know right where the required readings will be,” Reynold said.
Mai Ha Vu ’13 is enrolled in a Syntax course also using the new method.
“It does make things easier,” Vu said. “Instead of having to login and remember passwords, I can get [to the document] in two clicks.”
Vu went on to liken this pilot program to another idea that came up in a past student initiative to list the textbooks needed for each course, along with their prices, by preregistration. This could help students, Vu added, especially for those counting their coins, and allow them to plan ahead and pick courses that will be economically feasible for them.
Fyffe hopes the pilot program this semester will allow Grinnell to work any kinks out of the system before universally adopting it across the curriculum.
To this end, Fyffe has a request: “As you access your readings in P-Web for the pilot courses, please let us know what you think.”

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