Course Reserve Policies & Copyright - Leganto - Course Reserves

Course Reserves Policies

**COURSE RESERVE POLICIES**
1. All Course Reserve requests must be placed through Leganto following the 5 Basic Steps. Word Documents uploaded into Leganto with citations are not accepted as requests. All 5 steps must be followed. If assistance is needed, please reach out to Course Reserves.
2. Course Reserves are restricted by copyright to use only materials that are 1) owned by GMU Libraries, 2) Open Access, or 3) found freely available online for course reserve purposes.
3. Course Reserves will investigate the possibility of placing a rush purchase order request for materials not owned by GMU Libraries. Faculty must use the "Reserve Purchase Order" tag on the citation for the material in their reading list to indicate this need to Course Reserves staff (see, Step 3). Faculty may temporarily provide a personal copy to be held on physical reserve only if one is purchased by the libraries. This must be coordinated with Course Reserves (and the Media Librarian if media materials are involved). Course Reserves is not allowed to place personal copies on reserve in any other circumstance.
4. Course Reserves are unable to digitize media materials or whole books to be placed on e-reserve due to copyright restrictions. Visit the Media Collection - Faculty Services page if you are interested in potential digital access to films.
5. If possible, Course Reserves staff tries to prioritize requests when indicated that they need a quicker turnaround time.
6. Please place your course reserve requests a minimum of 3 weeks in advance to need within your classroom? Why? The Mason Reserves Team consists of a small staff. This allows them adequate time to process and address any issues (copyright, item missing, item not owned, recalls, etc.). Please note that based on potential issues, processing times may vary for some requests.
7. All faculty are encouraged to contact the Assistive Technology Initiative (ATI) and work with the Office of Disability Services when students need accommodations made for course materials. The Reserve Team is able to provide any requested course reserve materials to ATI so that they may be made accessible.

The Basics of Copyright

Copyright and Course Reserves

Some materials may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, United States Code) as "Fair Use". Learn more about Fair Use at the Copyright Resources Office. Items may be placed on course reserves with copyright permission pending. If copyright permission is subsequently denied, faculty are informed and the material is removed from Course Reserves.

Policies

The following Electronic Reserves and Copyright Procedures have been established by George Mason University Library

Faculty may be limited by the number of copyrighted articles which may be digitized for electronic reserves for each course.
Entire out-of-print books will not be digitized.
Fair Use may apply for the digitization of up to three (3) articles from a single periodical volume, as long as these articles have not been previously placed on electronic reserve, been part of a course pack, or are already available in a library database.
Students must login to Blackboard with their username and password to view electronic materials. This ensures that materials are available only to authorized users.
The full bibliographic citation must be visible on the first page of each document.

Related subject guides:

Types of Reserve Items

Physical Reserves: are books or media that faculty members place on temporary reserve for the semester to circulate for a shortened-loan period for their course. Items circulate as 2-hour, 4-hour (media only), 1-day, 3-day, or 7-loan periods. All physical reserves are located behind the information desks at the Fairfax, Mason Square, and Mercer libraries.

Electronic Reserves (e-Reserves): are book chapters or articles that are requested by faculty to made electronically available via Blackboard.

Permanent Reserves: The University Libraries has small “Permanent Reserve" collections. These consist of items determined - based upon value, usage and/or theft patterns - to require restricted in-library-use only access. This is distinct from Course Reserves, which are linked to a specific course for the length of the term. If a faculty member thinks an item should be evaluated for Permanent Reserve, they need to contact their subject librarian.

TextSelect Reserves: are a semi-permanent reserves collection that is apart of GMU Libraries' TextSelect Program, a project to help address the cost of required textbooks. The Libraries' collection now includes required textbooks that exceed $50 for the following 100, 200, 300 & 400 level required courses.