I am working at my part-time university reference librarian job tonight and am finding it very depressing everytime an international student comes up to the desk. Every one of them asks me the same question "Do you have _____(fill in the blank) textbook."
In India and China (from what I have been told), academic libraries carry enough copies of textbooks so the entire class can check them out to use for the semester, unlike the U.S., where we make everyone buy copies of textbooks that cost hundreds of dollars and then can't be sold back at the end of the semester because a newer version is coming out.
So every time someone comes up to the information desk my heart sinks because I get to say to each of them, "No, the library doesn't usually carry textbooks." Oh, I do a search to make sure that one lone copy hasn't been donated by the professor but usually I have to say no. Believe it or not, I didn't become a librarian so that I could NOT help people find the information/book they need.
I hate this time of year:(
1 comment:
I never heard of that, but it's a great idea.
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