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Library Woes

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Clarissa

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All of the university libraries in Illinois are suffering because of our lack of state budget. Scholarly books published since 2015 (which are the ones that I need) aren’t getting bought by libraries. So I can’t order them from other university libraries. Our own collection is pathetically tiny but I used to be able to rely  on other college libraries in the state.

When / if we finally get a budget, nobody will give us extra funds to close the gaping hole in the library collections that is being formed right now. Libraries are living organisms. You can’t treat them this way or they begin to die. Which, I’m sure, is not something that a creature like Rauner is capable of understanding.

4 responses to “Library Woes”

  1. Evelina Anville Avatar
    Evelina Anville

    Your Interlibrary Loan only works with in-state libraries? I get items from various libraries all over the country with my institution’s interlibrary loanprogram. Does your library use the ILLIAD system? If so, I think you can make requests from any library.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      We have this ridiculous system that if a book is available in the Illinois library system, we can’t ask for it in Iliad. And some books are available in eformat at some college in Illinois. I can’t see them but neither can I request this book through ILL because technically it’s available.

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  2. paranoid Avatar
    paranoid

    That’s not how it worked when I was at your sister school, except when the interlibrary loan people didn’t bother to check if the Illinois copies were print or electronic. I always left notes to tell ILL pay attention.
    Have you had them turn away your ILL requests, even after leaving notes that the only Illinois copies were online and unavailable?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      That’s exactly the problem. I still can’t get the books even when I explain that they are effectively unavailable.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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