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.

Can you get things for college students?

Yes, but you may wish to know of some options that may get you what you need faster.

Many college libraries in South Carolina subscribe to a service called Polaris. This interagency service transfers items between South Carolina college libraries in as little as three working days. If the item you need is not in South Carolina, college libraries subsidize interlibrary loan requests for their students. Many academic libraries will not lend to public libraries, or charge a hefty fee to them for the loan of materials.

About textbooks: just-published textbooks are usually not available via interlibrary loan; mainly because the expense makes libraries reluctant to release them. Some libraries will lend textbooks to public libraries. However, you may only get to keep the item a short time, and certainly not the length of a full academic semester. While we sympathize with the difficulty and expense of buying and reselling textbooks, we cannot buy everyone's textbooks for them, or keep other libraries' books indefinitely. Failure to return items on time jeopardizes our ability to borrow items for others in the future.