Curses! Thrifty resourcefulness foiled by library's diabolical book relocation plans

By Elsa Lee

September 19, 2005 | "Yikes!" I screamed as I pushed my way down the crowded aisles of the bookstore to find the required text books for this semester's classes. The prices were outrageous. The fish diversity text cost $94.95 by itself!

Trying to calm me, my husband poked fun at me saying I surely must be the stingiest person. But the way I look at it, is that my craft is really a talent of resourcefulness and thrift. He should be grateful I save us so much money. Just because I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on books I will only use for three and a half months, doesn't qualify me as stingy. Anyway, I usually only get about 10 percent of the original price back when I return it at the end of the semester. What I hate even more is when the teacher has three or four books that are all required, and it just happens to be they are all written by him. So I simply try to dodge buying textbooks all together.

Last semester must have been my record. I spent around $50. I opted to use the wonderful resources of our libraries, instead of watching all the little money I had disappear. I woke up a few hours early and stayed a couple hours later on campus to go to the science and technology library. There all my books were on reserve. Yes, this did take a bit more effort than studying in the comfort of my apartment in my pajamas, but I found the time spent in the library was usually more productive. I wasn't distracted by my charming husband and I was able to concentrate and really study. So if you were wondering why you could never get the organic chemistry book from reserve, it was probably because I was hunched over one of the tables on the second floor absorbing all the information I could from its wonderful text.

After such a great success of last semester, I was inspired to try the same technique. Forget those darn high book prices. I handed my husband the little plastic basket, took out a piece of paper and pen and began jotting down all the titles and authors of the books. I took my list and proceeded to exit the bookstore and go to the library. With a quick search, I found three of the books I needed. They weren't even in the reserve, so I would be able to check them out for weeks at a time and not spent one cent. The first two English books I found were located in the Merrill Library and were quite easy to locate. My most expensive book, The Diversity of Fishes, was not so easy. It was located on the third floor of the SciTech Library with the call number QL615.H44.

I took the elevator because the stairs were temporarily closed. I stepped out when the door opened and to my astonishment half of the shelves were empty! I crossed my fingers as I briskly walked up the aisles, hoping my book would be there. But when I came to the row marked "QL," I only found a bare shelf. I quickly inquired from a student librarian where had all the books gone. She redirected me back downstairs to the help desk for assistance. The book I needed had been transferred to another part of the library that was not accessible to students due to construction. The man at the help desk explained that once they retrieved the book, I would receive an email telling me I could pick up the book. That sounded easy enough.

Unfortunately, the next day I did not receive an email with such promising news. Instead the message read "Material you have requested from the Automated Storage Retrieval System or a collection being relocated are unavailable because they've been marked as 'MISSING IN-HOUSE.'" I screamed while pounding my tight fist on my computer table. How could this happen to me? My price-dodging techniques had worked thus far in my college career. I couldn't believe it. I was going to have to go against everything I believed and buy a $95 book. Forced to summit myself to the cruel realities of being a college student, I somberly headed up to campus and toward the bookstore where my cruel fate awaited me.

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