Course Material Reserve

This page contains information intended for any teaching faculty, including adjunct instructors, who wish to place materials on reserve for a course offered through the George Mason School of Law. These forms and guidelines are provided to assist teaching faculty with the process of making materials available through the library for use in conjunction with specific law courses. Here we provide the following:

Note: Materials placed on reserve are protected by U.S. Copyright Law (U.S.C. Title 17). Faculty members must read and sign a copyright liability statement for all materials placed on reserve. This form is available below. Some resources on copyright can be obtained through Mason Publishing Group.

Course Reserve Guidelines

What

All reserve requests require the following:

  • Completed Course Reserve/Copyright Form
  • Completed Bibliography Form
  • Adequate copies of reading materials, taking into consideration class size

Forms are available at the law school circulation desk. Electronic versions of these forms appear below.

When

Requests should be submitted preferably 2 weeks prior to the start of the semester, with the appropriate forms attached. Please allow for processing time before informing a class about reserve materials. Every attempt will be made to process reserve item requests within 24 hours of the time the request is submitted, but processing time may vary, depending on workload and volume of requests.

How

Books that are owned by the library should be pulled off the shelf and handed over to the circulation staff, along with the completed forms. Circulation staff may be available to assist with the removal of such books from the general collection, providing the request is accompanied by the appropriate form. If the library does not own a copy of a requested book or where an item is missing, faculty will be promptly notified. The faculty member may make a request for a book purchase by contacting their library liaison. Suggestions will be forwarded to the acquisitions department, and the requesting faculty member will be notified of delivery dates. If this book will be used in a course, please indicate that information on the form.

Limits

Up to 30 journal articles and photocopies per semester. For multiple class readings over the course of the semester, it is recommended that readings compiled and sold as course packets go through the University Copy Center. However, if the preference is that the material be distributed from the Circulation Desk, it should be photocopied, collated and placed in a binder or file folder with correspondingly appropriate labels - for example “Readings, Week 1”.

Return of Personal Copies

At the end of each semester all reserve photocopies and personal books will be returned to individual faculty.

Contact Information

Mark Leighton at (703) 993-8238 or mleighto@gmu.edu. Faculty members should contact their library liaison.

Forms

Forms are available at the circulation desk in the library, and electronic versions of these forms are available as follows:

Completed forms should be returned to the circulation desk.

Electronic Reserves

The Law School does not use a library-based electronic reserve system. Instead, law school faculty use TWEN (The West Education Network) for posting course materials for their classes. All course materials posted on TWEN must comply with U.S. copyright law. For assistance with copyright questions, faculty may contact  Mason’s Publishing Group at (703) 993-2544 or publish@gmu.edu. For assistance posting materials on TWEN, faculty members should contact their library liaison. Liaisons can also help determine whether materials are available electronically in a library database and do not need to be posted on TWEN.