The textbook question, and some answers

School starts this week, and about this time requests for textbooks begin to trickle in.

Textbooks can sometimes be borrowed via interlibrary loan. The main problem is that the maximum time we can have these books is about six weeks, less than half of a semester. If patrons decide to keep them longer, their accounts will be frozen by overdue fines (25 cents per day).

The lending library may need the item back for their own patrons, and we receive unpleasant e-mails and letters until the item is returned. This jeopardizes our ability to borrow items in the future.

An article in the Post and Courier's business review on Monday offers a few options for students who are trying to avoid the outrageous costs of textbooks. A number of online booksellers offer significant discounts on textbooks:

• Half.com
• Amazon.com
• CheapestTextbooks.com
• AbeBooks.com
• Alibris.com
• Campusbooks.com
• BestBookBuys.com
• BarnesandNoble.com
• Vitalsource.com

To see the article, click this link and scroll down to "Other UMPC news:"

http://umpc.com/default.aspx?story_id=109326928

Additional information found via Librarian's Internet Index sites of the week:

MakeTextbooksAffordable.com is a site devoted to a national student campaign against the rising costs of textbooks. California and Massachusetts have legislative bills pending to cap the costs of textbooks.

Resource sharing and SCLA

The Resource Sharing Interest Group (RSIG) of the South Carolina Library Association (SCLA) has been inactive for a while. Carrie Volk of Winthrop University, the chair of this group, is making efforts to revive it.

Their membership has leaned largely toward the academic libraries, and they want more public library participation. Via the State Library, Carrie was given my name as a public interlibrary loan librarian. Today, I was officially appointed secretary of this group for 2007 and 2008.

As library budgets are squeezed, no one library can have everything, and resource sharing is becoming vitally important to obtaining the information our patrons need. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to participate in dreaming and visioning for the future of interlibrary loan in South Carolina.