Text Select Textbook Reserves Program

Due to capacity limitations and a need to create a more efficient workflow, the Libraries are pausing our TextSelect program, which provides course reserves materials for Mason Core courses, for Spring 2025.  We will keep all TextSelect books from Spring and Fall 2024 on reserve, but we will not automatically add newly adopted textbooks to the program. Our regular electronic and print reserves programs will continue. 

The Libraries remain committed to supporting students who need access to unaffordable required course materials, and plan to return in Fall 2025 with a more efficient approach to textbook reserves for required courses. 

We encourage faculty to place requests for course reserves for any textbooks needed via Leganto. For questions about placing textbook reserve requests, please contact the Reserves Team at ereserve@gmu.edu. For questions and concerns about access to textbooks or any other aspect of the Libraries’ collections, please reach out to your subject librarian. 

Mason Libraries’ TextSelect program provides access to most required textbooks for Mason Core classes at no cost to students. TextSelect items are available on 2-hour reserve (that is, they can be checked out for 2 hours at a time).  

For courses on the Fairfax campus, TextSelect materials are held at the Fenwick Library Infodesk. If your course is at Mason Square in Arlington, visit the Mason Square Library on the second floor of Van Metre Hall. For the SciTech Campus, visit Mercer Library in Colgan Hall.

Spring 2025 Text Select List

The link below will download an Excel file listing all the current textbooks on TextSelect 2 hour reserve.

TextSelect Spring 2025

Mason Libraries’ TextSelect program provides access to most required textbooks for Mason Core classes at no cost to students. TextSelect items are available on 2-hour reserve (that is, they can be checked out for 2 hours at a time).  

For courses on the Fairfax campus, TextSelect materials are held at the Fenwick Library Infodesk. If your course is at Mason Square in Arlington, visit the Mason Square Library on the second floor of Van Metre Hall. For the SciTech Campus, visit Mercer Library in Colgan Hall.

Items are automatically placed on reserve via TextSelect if they are:

•     Required for a Mason Core course.
•     Officially adopted as a textbook through the University Bookstore.
•     Over $40 to purchase. (Items under $40 are considered low-cost course materials.)
•     Less than $40 and already in the Libraries’ collections.

TextSelect is just one of several library initiatives to make college education at Mason more affordable. The Libraries also support textbook affordability by promoting open educational resources (OER) and purchasing ebooks suitable for use as textbooks.

If you have any questions about the TextSelect program, please email the Collections Strategy Department at libcoll@gmu.edu.

•     Check the list of all current TextSelect books posted on this page.
•     If your textbook isn’t listed and you think it should be, please email the Collections Strategy Department at libcoll@gmu.edu
•     Alternatively, simply enter your textbook title and author into the Mason Libraries Search. 

•     Please adopt your required textbooks for Mason Core courses via the University Bookstore. We work in partnership with the University Bookstore to identify TextSelect-eligible materials.
•     If you would like to request a textbook reserve for a non-Mason Core class you are teaching, please use our new Course Reserves platform, Leganto.

The following items cannot be placed on TextSelect:

•     E-textbooks available for rent by semester
•     Online auxiliary materials with individual student access codes
•     Print materials for individual use such as workbooks
•     Loose leaf materials