Course Reserves

COVID-19:
 

• Course Reserves, in alignment with the Libraries Textbooks & E-First Statement, is now an E-first initiative. 
   
• Physical materials on course reserve ARE be able to circulate from Libraries’ Information Desks.
   

Introducing Leganto! 

• Staring April 30th 2021, the ILLiad webform that faculty use for requesting Course Reserve materials will be retired. 
   
• George Mason University Libraries has adopted the ExLibris tool Leganto to provide a more seamless Course Reserves and Course Readings function with Blackboard, to better support our Faculty and Students in their teaching and learning, and to advance the broader strategic goals of George Mason University. 
   
• Faculty may begin utilizing Course Reserves - Leganto as early as Spring 2021. For those interested, please navigate to our Course Reserves - Leganto subject guide to learn how. 

Course Reserves is a service provided my GMU Libraries for students and faculty. Faculty members place course reserve materials on either physical or electronic reserves for their students. All electronic reserve materials are available through Blackboard. All physical reserves are made available at the Fenwick, Mason Square, or Mercer library's Information Desks. 

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.