Books on reserve at DMC

With a declining economy and the ever-present high prices of textbooks, students become more pressed for cash and are forced to turn to alternative sources for the knowledge they need.

Unbeknownst to most students, Del Mar College has answered the cry for financial relief in the form of textbooks available in the William F. White Library.

Sean McRae, Geology major was one of the students unaware of the provisions the library supplies.

"I had no idea that students were able to access certain texts from the library, but now that I do know, I will definitely utilize the books' availability, especially when it comes to my more cut-and-dried subjects like English," he said.

Although the texts are available, sometimes it proves to be more beneficial to students in relation to their majors to buy the textbooks.

"The books I need for my geology classes as well as the subjects I particularly enjoy such as math will continue to be the books that I purchase with full intention of keeping them as reference material," said McRae.

"I am positive that if more students were aware of the option to view some of their essential textbooks in the library, they would be more apt to viewing the books, especially since we are in a recession," he said.

The responsibility for ordering the extra textbooks for student use falls on the instructors. One instructor sympathetic about the plight of the penny-pinching college student is History Professor Lisa Victoria Welch.

"Because the books are only allowed to be viewed in the vicinity of the library as opposed to being borrowed, it can limit the students' time to access the pertinent information that may be needed for their courses," Welch said

A measure that could be taken to provide more varied texts through the library is for the library staff to work with the teachers to coordinate the texts that would be needed for various core courses as well as courses that are major specific.

Instead of shelling out hard-earned cash for the entire textbook, convert those dollars into quarters and pave the path to knowledge with Xerox copies of essential subjects.