Sometimes, I think that the only reason I'm working on days like this, or perhaps why I have a job at all, is because we have a huge number of the class textbooks on reserve behind the front desk. Four out of five people who come to the desk are of this nature. Granted, some books are issued in new editions every five minutes and are priced in the $100 arena, so perhaps the fact that they're on reserve make sense. But when an instructor puts a $15-$20 book on reserve because her students won't buy it, I'm like please.
Of course my fellow MFA students who are teaching freshman comp have told me how hard it is to get the students to even buy the textbooks, let alone actually read them. But hell, I sunk plenty of money into college bookstores when I was a student (I don't remember anyone ever putting anything on reserve in the library that wasn't just a single reading.) Don't they realize that when they stand at the copier copying every single page of a 300 page book at 10 cents a pop, their paying far more than the 15.00 cover price--and likely violating copywright laws. And they're fucking annoying me, since not one of them actually ever can run a copy machine. grr...
I think it's only a crutch, so that when the next year the instructor they have doesn't put the text on reserve, they get all pissy when they realize not every fucking book for every class is behind the desk. And then there are those who get pissy when we tell them they they can't check it out to take it home. My favorite however are the people who stumble in here a week before finals, having never set foot in here before obviously, looking for their book, some boring ass book on marketing or nutrition, or math for complete and utter morons (actually I should be in that class)..and then stand there and try to convince me why I should let them take it home with them, or they "accidently" steal it and get caught when the alarm goes off. Please, people, buy your own fucking books...
I'm so happy when people are checking out books just for reading, or research, or a project. I love these people. Even the ones checking out lame-ass stuff. Especially the ones checking out poetry. Sometimes, I waive their fines without them knowing it.
Thus, the end of my rant...
