When materials are used for a specific course/set of courses professors can request they go into the course reserves. This means that students are able to check them out for a short amount of time. This is to help make sure that as many students as possible may access the materials. There are many possible types of resources that may be found in the course reserves such as:
Course reserve items can be found behind the front desk of the library.
They can be checked out by asking someone at the desk for the item. They will also be able to let you know how much time you have before you need to return the item.