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.

Reading is fundamental

The ILL department tries its best to include all of the information needed on the outside of every interlibrary loan item. This includes:

• The due date for the item (in nice red ink so it stands out)
• The item ID (for tracking purposes)
• Out telephone number
• Any applicable restrictions (no bookdrop, no renewals, etc)

It is frustrating to hear that the information hasn't been read, or worse, has been removed, despite the large black lettering that says DO NOT REMOVE THIS STRIP. If the strip is removed, the front line staff do not always know that what they have received is an interlibrary loan item. The yellow band serves both staff and patrons by enabling quick identification and return of items to the correct location.

Staff: Please help us out by reminding patrons not to remove the yellow band.

Patrons: Please help us out by leaving the yellow band on the item.

A gentle reminder: new items are not for ILL

We processed 75 new requests yesterday - close to but not quite breaking a record. Of those 75 requests, 7 were for items released in the past two months.

Libraries won't lend out their newer items, because they want their patrons to use them first. We do not lend items from the new book section because our patrons' tax dollars finance them, so CCPL patrons should have first choice of those items.

Items published or released in the last 6 months are not available via interlibrary loan. If you would like one of these items, please submit a suggestion for purchase at any of our branches or by calling Telephone Reference at 805-6930.

For the person who submitted an ILL request for an item with a publication date of September 2007 - our department is good, but not that good! Future publications are not available via interlibrary loan either.

Revolving door

June and July are big vacation months for us in ILL, so it's been like a revolving door - one of us comes back from vacation while another one leaves. Those left behind scramble to make sure everything gets done and try to make everything look effortless.

I have a great crew - hardworking, conscientious, and almost never ill. These reliable folks are always willing to work until our desks are clear, even though some days (including most Mondays) the pile of materials going and coming seems endless.

Thank you to my favorite people - you help make my work a joy, even when things are crazy.