Office of the Dean of Libraries and University Librarian

Welcome to the George Mason University Libraries

Mason’s library system has realized extensive transformation in all key areas necessary for academic success in the 21st century.  We have achieved robust collections growth – especially in our extensive digital resources and noteworthy special collections.  We provide integrated services, offer innovative programs, and undertake leading-edge initiatives utilizing the latest technologies.  Our accomplished library faculty and skilled staff members remain adept at assisting you in libraries at each of the university’s campuses and our online personalized services.

The new and vastly expanded Fenwick Library on the Fairfax campus, which opened in January 2016, is a marquee facility enormously popular with all members of the university community.  It has enabled us to undertake new roles within the university in support of its educational and research mission and, importantly, has inspired vital partnerships with academic and academic support units, centered at the library, on a scale that could not have been imagined earlier.

With our newest program, the Digital Scholarship Center (DiSC), we support multidisciplinary explorations and the teaching and learning needs of our digital researchers.  DiSC’s focus is facilitating scholarly activities that are conducted or enhanced through use of data, electronic texts, digital media, and specialized digital tools.  Through dedicated instructional and production technology-rich labs, the center’s expert staff support students and faculty in a broad cluster of digital research services.  DiSC represents a leading-edge academic service dimension where discovery, exploration, collaboration and, ultimately, learning occur.

With Mason Publishing and George Mason University Press, we continue to provide enterprise–level service with specialized information and research materials to learners and researchers locally, statewide, nationally and internationally.  Through various publishing endeavors, including most notably Open Access models, we aim to contribute to the dissemination of research and knowledge to the broader global community.

Mason Libraries is in the forefront of the ever changing landscape of academic research libraries and the broader scholarly communications ecosystem.  We are one of the leading university libraries in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and continue to gain steadily in national stature.  We aim to be the center of Mason’s academic and research enterprise outside of the classroom, laboratory, and studio.  As Mason’s academic reach expands, so does that of its libraries.

I invite you to explore and discover, review and reflect, and learn from our varied and significant resources.  You are welcome to visit any of the five Mason libraries at the university’s three distributed campuses – Fairfax, Mason Square and the Science and Technology Campus in Manassas – or here online at library.gmu.edu.