Welcome to fall semester 2025! Whether you’re a new or returning student, you’ll find that all of the Emory Libraries are ready to help you with study and research needs. We encourage you to explore our website, where you’ll find information on our subject librarians, study spaces, tech help, databases, and so much more.
If you are looking for materials from your course syllabi, below are some tips for finding them.
Does the library have my textbook? Academic libraries typically don’t buy textbooks for their general collections because many are highly specialized and go out of date very quickly. However, Woodruff Library now offers short-term loans of textbooks required for some large Emory College courses via Course Reserves, so it is worth checking to see if the library has a copy. This program is jointly funded by Campus Life/Emory First and Emory Libraries.
- See which textbooks are currently available as part the library’s Textbook Lending program. More are being added as the semester gets underway!
- Otherwise, check the library’s catalog, Library Search, for older titles (be aware that older editions may or may not have all the material your instructor wants you to cover for the class).
- Check course reserves to see if your professor has placed physical and or electronic items on reserve for the course.
- Search for answers in the Emory Libraries FAQ (Ask Us) section.
- Remember Emory’s bookstore, where you can purchase, rent, or go digital with your textbooks.
- For other potential options, including availability of e-books, please see Textbook and Teaching Materials Support.
Where are course reserves?
- Access your Course Reserves materials through Canvas. Click on the Library Course Reserves link in your course. This opens your list of PDFs, web links to electronic resources licensed by Emory, and physical reserves items available for checkout.
- Borrow physical reserves items from your library service desk (in the Woodruff Library, that’s the entry level, or 2nd floor).
- If your instructor doesn’t use Canvas, you can log in directly to the Course Reserves site to see the materials for all of your classes. Click on “View Course” next to a class to see your material.
If your professor has listed a book or articles but has NOT put them on reserve, you can do the following:
- For books, use Library Search to see if the library owns it.
- For articles, try the Articles+ tab, which provides access to millions of scholarly publications harvested from commercial publishers and open-access repositories.
- Or, for articles, use the citations, which provide brief information about the article title, author, journal title and date. Look up that journal/magazine/newspaper name in the e-journals database to see if we own it electronically; if we don’t, we may still have a print copy. When you search in e-journals, there will be a link to search Library Search for the print copy.
Finally, come visit us at the library service desk or schedule a consultation with your subject librarian.