“I can think of ten good reasons to never let go of a dime.” – Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob SquarePants
I want to be a better student than I have been in the past, and one way is not to wait too long to get my textbooks. The problem is that they’re expensive, and it just drives me up the wall to have to spend all that money. I know that I have to have the book, and I know the money’s going out sooner or later, but parting with it, well, it’s like a phobia. Don’t believe me? Ask my wife.
So this time around I thought I’d just bite the bullet and order them in time actually to have them on hand at the start of class for a change. I know, I know, it’s a revolution. So I logged into the A.T. Still University student portal to find out what the required books are, and then went to their online bookstore to see about buying them.
They want how much? Oh, heck no! The two books together were something like one hundred sixty dollars. That’s just not what I have in mind when I think about what to do with that kind of money, so I started thinking about ways to get my hands on them without shelling out that kind of cash.
My first thought was to see about finding them used. That’s the common advice, right? So I copied the ISBN and checked it out on Amazon to see who would sell me a used copy cheaply. Turns out I could save some money that way, but I was still going to have to say goodbye to Mr. Franklin to get what I needed.
That still wasn’t good enough. So then I thought that maybe I should think about the unique resource I have right over my head. See, I work at a university, and not only that, but my office is in the same building as the library. I doubted that the specific books I needed would be in our stacks, but perhaps I’d be able to get them through the consortium of universities in the Washington, D.C. area, and perhaps the rules on that would be such that I could keep the books on hand long enough to get through my whole ten week term.
So with the philosophy of “you don’t ask, you don’t get” I went upstairs to speak to the ladies at the Circulation Desk. I explained my situation, and it turns out that yes, I can check out books from consortium members and have them sent to me, and I can renew them twice, meaning I can hold them for up to twelve weeks. Perfect!
Armed with that knowledge, I went back to my office and looked at the library web site, and sure enough both of the books are available through that system. I reserved them, and look forward to getting them on hand probably the day before Thanksgiving. By the time they’re due to be returned, by courses will have just ended.
Now, I do recognize that I may actually want to keep some of these textbooks on hand, you know, that they’re required for good reason. And if I wanted to save money at all costs I definitely wouldn’t be in grad school. But if this turns out to be a sustainable way for me to get required textbooks, at least I can find out which ones are truly worth keeping before I make that kind of investment.
Next up, I travel down a road not taken -- how I considered Liberty University and why I didn't choose them.