[13240] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Library links to chains and Amazon.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anthony Adam)
Fri Apr 7 20:03:04 2000
Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2000 11:29:31 -0500
From: Anthony Adam <AADAM@COLEMAN.PVAM.EDU>
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Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
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Our academic library has links to Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Borders, Edward R. Hamilton (primarily remainders, heavily
discounted), and Efollett, with general links to "university press
catalogs" and the like. Our situation is quite different from
Michael's--our campus bookstore is pretty awful, and the next
closest bookstore of any size is at least thirty miles away. If a
student needs a textbook or even Catcher in the Rye for a class,
more than likely she won't find a copy in the campus bookstore,
which tends to understock every title (the library, of course, might
have one copy of some titles, but we don't purchase textbooks).
However, by clicking on one of the links (we don't push one over
the other), the student can have material delivered right to her door.
The alternative is to get a car, drive into Houston, and start
hopping from bookstore to bookstore in search of a specific title.
And as much as I love browsing bookstores, especially the
independents, I prefer the convenience of online shopping for
specific titles.
Urban libraries might have a different perspective, but for those of
us in the boondocks of America, the online megabookstores are a
blessing.
Tony Adam
Coleman Library
Prairie View A&M University
Prairie View, TX 77446
anthony-adam@tamu.edu
fax 936-857-2755
If we see light at the end of the tunnel/ It's the light of the oncoming train. -- Robert Lowell, "Since 1939"
