If you need to buy all the recommended textbooks what's the point of a library with millions of books?
2007-11-14 09:58:50 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
You'd rather buy your own copy of every book in the library?
not me, I want a library to hold all those books that I only need to refer to one time. Especially the really expensive books. I'd like them to subscribe to all of those academic journals I need to look at too - I can't afford that myself.
2007-11-14 10:14:20 · answer #1 · answered by CoachT 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Textbooks give an overview of a subject for a student in an overview sort of class; as you become more advanced and more specialized in your study, you will need to move beyond them (although they may still serve as a useful first reference). Sure, many freshmen and sophomores can get by just fine with mostly textbooks and internet sources, but eventually you will need library resources such as books and scholarly journals (even for the ones online, your library is paying a lot to subscribe to) for your research.
Likewise, some subjects require more library research than others. Someone writing a scholarly book or dissertation in literature or history will use hundreds of books and journal articles and perhaps rare archival materials held in libraries. They can't possibly buy all these things even if they wanted to.
Ask your professors if they ever use library materials, I'm sure they'll get a kick out of that. It's not just there for undergrads; you don't have to use it, but rest assured that there are people who do.
If your complaint is actually about having to buy the books, your library may actually have some books for some classes. You just have to beat everyone else to it, since if they do have it, they most likely won't have more than a couple copies. It'd be a waste of shelf space for the library to stock 100+ copies of textbooks for every introductory course on campus!
2007-11-14 18:41:26 · answer #2 · answered by ooooo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A university library is one that will hold reference books, rather than actual learning material such as a textbook :'[ 'Tis a shame, truly.
2007-11-14 18:02:25 · answer #3 · answered by tiredcorpse011001 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋