n 2004, the Binghamton University Libraries created a task force to explore the possibility of providing access to electronic reserves through the newly available Blackboard Content System™. The Content System is used to collect, manage, and publish content in Blackboard. The task force used a psychology course to pilot the Content System for reserve material after the class professor assigned “Course Builder” privileges to the reserves staff.

Preliminary findings of the pilot study suggest that using Blackboard for course reserves allows library resources to be better integrated into academic course work. The task force plans to continue their investigation into using Blackboard for course reserves. Challenges that need to be addressed in this investigation include the issue of requiring Course Builder privileges for each course, gathering and managing statistics, and the management of documents saved in the Content System.