Have you ever been told to check the library first before buying one of the textbooks for class? We all know that buying books is one of the major expenses for students like yourself. Textbook prices are skyrocketing and in today's economy everyone's looking for a way to save some money. So why pay for something you can get for free, right?
Well, the truth is the library generally
will not purchase any of your textbooks for our collections. We purchase textbooks only if there is a lack of any other substantive literature in that field. Since there are thousands of books published every year and our budget is limited, we choose to use our resources to purchase books that support what you learn in class rather than books that are used directly in your instruction, i.e. textbooks. There is always a slim chance that we
might have a copy of your textbook. To find out go to our
library catalog and search for it by title. One caveat is that even if we do have your textbook it will often be one or two editions old.
The exception to this rule is our
Course Reserves collection. This collection is comprised of books faculty place in the library for their students to use. Your instructor will tell you if they've placed any books in the library on "Reserve." Check with them if you don't know. When you're ready to use a reserve book come to the library and give
your Instructor's Name and
Course Number to the person at the front desk. We will hold your Student ID Card while you use the book in the library. Reserve books cannot be taken outside the library.
So if you want to see if we have one of your textbooks in the library:
- Check with your instructor to see if it's on reserve. If it's on reserve, go to the front desk with your ID card and request it by Instructor Name or Course Number.
- If they haven't placed it on reserve, go to our library catalog and search for it there. If we have it in our collection, and it's not on reserve, you'll be able to borrow it for up to 28 days.
This year's Common Book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan is an exploration of the different methods of food production found in the United States today. The author takes us behind the scenes of today's industrial monoculture and shows us how the crops and animals raised by today's farmers and agricultural corporations ends up as food on our dinner tables. Especially enlightening is his description of the consequences of the agricultural subsidies promoting the growing of corn. This corn is found in the majority of the food products we consume each day. It turns out that Americans, not Mexicans, are the true "people of the corn."
