Alden Library will save students a trip up Morton Hill by making reserve room material available online.

Beginning Spring Quarter, the library will conduct a pilot program in which six professors will allow the library to scan their reserved materials into Ohio University's computer system, said Anita Grant, head of circulation services for the library. The online database for reserve room materials will include pamphlets, articles, notes and exams but will exclude books.

"It's becoming a popular way for reserve rooms to make things more accessible," she said.

Once the information is online, it will be available for students to obtain at any time of day, even after library hours, Grant said.

John Schermerhorn, management systems professor who will be participating in the pilot program, said the electronic reserve room is a good idea.

He makes much of his class assignments available through his home Web page. Being able to have direct links to helpful information in the electronic reserve room will make work easier for students, he said.

If the pilot program works well, by Fall Quarter all professors will be able to use the electronic reserve room, Grant said. However, professors can request their materials be available only in the library reserve room.

The library is not sure how much the electronic reserve room will cost OU, but participants do know that because of copyright laws, they will have to pay dues before copyrighted work can be placed online, Grant said.

Financing for the pilot project has come from the Technology Innovative Packages grants distributed by the Ohio Board of Regents, she said.

Using the electronic reserve room will make less work for students, but it will not reduce the amount of work for reserve room workers, said Darla Perry, senior library assistant.

Reserve room workers will have to scan the information into the computers and work at placing the information online, Perry said.

The scanning of materials for the pilot program has not started yet because of technical problems, she said.

After the electronic reserve room is online, students will be able to search the materials through Alice, which shows students what materials are on reserve in the library, Perry said.

Making reserve room materials available online will help students gain access to classroom information in their residence hall rooms, which seems like a good idea to most students.

"I think that it would be slightly better," said freshman Aaron Smith, who uses the reserve room for his history class.