Course Materials

Faculty are responsible for selecting textbooks and other reading materials for their courses and communicating their orders to the George Mason University bookstore. There are two methods you can use to place textbook orders:

• Through https://aip.bncollege.com  
  • Select Institution: Select George Mason University and press PROCEED
  • Use Net ID and Password to log in
  • If ordering materials for more than one course, you may need to contact Jared Prebish, Textbook Manager at the George Mason Bookstore (jprebish@gmu.edu), to update your credentials for multi-course requests. 
• By emailing Jared Prebish (jprebish@gmu.edu) or bookstor@gmu.edu with your book order. Please include the following in your email:
  • Department/Course/Section/Instructor/Required or recommended
  • Author/title/edition of the book and ISBN if available 

University policy requires faculty to make significant use of any text they require; textbooks are quite expensive, and it can be frustrating for students to have to buy books to only read a chapter or two. Those planning to use optional materials should list them as such on their syllabus and inform their students of this fact on the first day of class. In addition, faculty may not earn profits from the sale of unpublished notes, manuscripts, or other materials that they require for classroom use.  

Instructors may want to prepare a collection of readings (a “course pack”) that students can purchase before classes begin each semester. These materials must be prepared and submitted to the Copyright Office on the Fairfax Campus at least eight weeks before the beginning of each semester to receive copyright clearance. If copyright permission is not obtained, your articles cannot be copied. If permission is obtained, then the course packs will be copied and sold to students in the bookstore at the Fairfax or Prince William campus. We are unable to copy supplementary course materials in any other way.  

Supplementary readings and course materials may be placed on reserve at the main desks of the Fenwick Library (Fairfax Campus) or the Prince William Library, where students may check out the materials for as little as 2 hours to up to 7 days, depending on your instructions. Photocopying machines are available in all University Libraries for students to make copies of reserved materials. Materials placed on 2-hour reserve cannot be checked out of the libraries. You can also place items on electronic reserve and link them to your course on Canvas. Reserves are made using the Leganto Course Reserve tool. Please see here for more information on using the reserve system.  

Other important notes about course materials:  

• You will receive several email reminders prior to the semester, both from the bookstore and from Rachel, with these instructions and the deadline to order textbooks for said semester. Please comply with the stated deadlines.
• The bookstore does not handle instructor copies of textbooks. If you want to order a free desk copy, please check directly on the book publisher’s website. Most have the option available there.  
• Several open educational resources exist to provide open access to a variety of course materials, including:
  • OpenStax: Peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that are free to use online and include a low-cost print version for sale
  • Open Textbook Library: Provides links to over 1,700 open textbooks
  • Mason OER Metafinder: Searches across 22 different sources of open educational materials 
• A useful resource when searching for textbooks from a variety of publishers is www.facultycenter.net, where you can search for texts on your subject and request free review copies