There are 708 courses with documents on electronic reserves this semester.
Instructor Stephen Alley said going digital is a good idea.
"I first started using e-reserves as a way to cut down on paper," Alley said. "If you think about just the first day of class in a room of 240 students, there would be so much paper just on the syllabus alone."
Some UNM departments encourage their instructors to put documents online to save money and paper.
Jenison Klinger, department administrator for the Mathematics & Statistics Department, said the department leases its copiers and encourages staff to put documents online to stay within its quota.
"We pay a flat fee for our copier," she said. "It depends on what department, but let's say we paid for 90,000 copies a month, then you have to stay within that. If we go over, then we pay extra."
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She said the largest item in their materials budget is for the copier, and each student in the core math classes receives around nine copies each a semester, usually for exams.
Dave Herzel, operations manager at Zimmerman Library, said he hasn't heard of departments requiring instructors to put documents on e-reserves but strongly recommends it.
"Digital is the wave of the future," he said. "Actually, it's the current wave."
Alley said he doesn't feel pressured by the Psychology Department to put readings on e-reserves.
"Nobody has ever said anything about that in the department at all," he said. "In fact, I've been using e-reserves before anyone else I know."
Alley said he encourages students to print documents at CIRT pods because it's free.
Rachel Felix said she goes to the Lobo Lab in the SUB about three times a week. She said most of her instructors put course readings on e-reserves.
"I don't like it," she said. "It takes forever to print when they put articles on there, then you have all kinds of people waiting in here."
Felix said she doesn't like the traditional reserves system at Zimmerman either and said the solution to the long lines could be simple.
"Maybe they should just put another printer in here," she said, adding it's not worth waiting for a two-page document when someone else is printing a 20-page document.
Mark Harty, manager of computer pods and classrooms at CIRT, said no plans to add more printers are in the works. He said large files can back up the printer, and CIRT is looking for solutions.
"That is a problem we see all across the country with printing," Harty said. "We're looking into smoothing it over."
Harty said CIRT spends $60,000 per academic year on paper and toner for their printers.
"One of our goals is to maintain free printing in the pods for students," he said.
Herzel said traditional paper and book reserves at Zimmerman have dropped around 80 percent since e-reserves started three years ago.
But costs for printing in CIRT pods haven't risen drastically, Harty said.
"Costs have gone up two or three thousand dollars," he said. "That really doesn't seem like that much."
