But We've Never Done This Before!: One University's Textbooks on Reserve Pilot Project

Abstract

Sometime around the New Year, several staff members of Sewanee's Library hit upon some intersecting problems:, , We spent a lot of money on materials no one checked out;, We spent a lot of money on copyright permissions for one-time Blackboard postings that many never utilized;, We heard rumblings from professors about prohibitively expensive textbooks, especially when the bookstore added the 30% markup. Kids could go to class, but not all had the right books., , These issues raised a serious question: how could we spend our library dollars wisely? We wanted our catalog and shelves to look good, sure, but we wanted our holdings to actually get used. So we decided to put all our textbooks on reserve. Our goal was to make every class text available to every student in the university, no matter the cost., This presentation will trace this unfolding journey from conception through ugly meetings to purchasing plans to deals with the bookstore; I'll show you the growing pains of adding 700 volumes to a Reserves collection with no room to grow; and how a three-person department, with the help of catalogers, reference and systems librarians sought to make Circulation relevant and sustainable for many of our cash-strapped college kids.,