ask us email | chat | phone

Tips for Accessing E-Reserves

You may access electronic reserve materials from any computer with an internet connection. Workstations are available in all of the UW Libraries and in computer labs across all three UW campuses.

• Look in the UW Libraries catalog under "Course Reserves" and search by course or by instructor or look under your class listings in MyUW.
  
  
• You will find a list of all physical materials that are on reserve for your class, and a link to a list of e-reserve materials. Follow the link, enter your UW NetID for authentication, and acknowledge the copyright statement.
  
  
• Open an individual file in a separate window by clicking on its title.
  
  
• Close all browser windows when you are done in order to protect your privacy.
  
  
• There are some issues with specific browser configurations. See "Known Bugs".
  
  
• The time required for displaying and printing varies greatly depending on the equipment used and the size of the file.
  
  
• Report problems about specific readings to: eres@u.washington.edu.

• Most e-reserves are PDF files. To print a PDF document, use the print function on Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of the browser print function.

• I can't find my course materials on the e-reserves page.
  Sometimes course materials are made available in ways other than electronic reserves (e.g. course packs or via a course web site). Check your syllabus, your course web site, or consult your instructor for more information.
  
  
• The reading looks fine on the screen, but the printout is unreadable.
  This problem is caused by an incompatibility between your print drivers and Acrobat Reader. If you are using an older printer from home, some readings, particularly those with any landscape oriented pages, can print as nonsense.
  • You can also go to the web site for your printer to see if you can download an updated print driver.
  • You can select "print as image" in your print preferences.
  • If all else fails, you can always print the readings from workstations in the UW Libraries or at any UW computer lab.
  
  
• The computer doesn't recognize my user name and password.
  A variety of user name password systems are used to protect access to electronic reserves. The most common is the UW NetID. If you have trouble with your UW NetID, contact UW Computing and Communications.
  
  Occasionally, an instructor will want to password a specific reading, folder, or even the entire list of readings. In that case, enter the user name and password supplied by your instructor at the beginning of the quarter. Readings supplied by your instructor via a course web site may have password restrictions. Contact your instructor for details.
  
  
• After I download an article, the computer says "Done," but the screen is blank.
  This problem can be caused by a conflict between the PDF file, the server where the file is loaded, your browser and your version of Acrobat Reader. It can usually be solved by using a different browser or by downloading the file to a disk instead of opening it directly. PDF readings can also be too large for your computer's temporary memory. You can empty your cache file to get more space, or you can download the file to a disk instead of opening it directly.
  
  
• When I try to open an article, I get a message that says "Internet Explorer cannot download...[name of file] from eres.lib.washington.edu Internet explorer was not able to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later."
  This problem is caused by the security settings on your browser. To fix it, select Tools > Internet Options from the menu bar at the top. Click on the "Advanced" tab at the top of the window that opens. Scroll down to almost the bottom of the list and deselect "Do not save encrypted pages to disk."