Book Loans Library revamped to give students free textbook rentals
Book Loans library
105
Books that have already been reserved this quarter
56
Percent of books in the catalog relevant to South Campus classes
44
Percent of books in the catalog relevant to North Campus classes
92
Percent of books in the catalog useful for General Education and lower-division classes
SOURCE: Book Loans Library Director Amreen Rahman
By Serli Polatoglu
Jan. 10, 2011 1:32 a.m.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Financial Supports Commission has completely renovated the Book Loans Library for the new quarter.
The library, which rents textbooks to students for free, now has an organized catalog, a larger selection of books and an online reserve system.
Following the revamp, the library holds more than 300 textbooks that students can check out for the duration of the quarter, said Book Loans Library Director Amreen Rahman.
“When I was elected in May 2010, the loan library wasn’t even running. It was a pile of books in a room with no organizational system in place and no way to reserve books,” Financial Supports Commissioner Rustom Z. Birdie said.
Rahman said students can reserve their books online, and they have two business days to pick up their free rentals at Kerckhoff 300A. However, because of limited availability, students check out books on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We hold a host of different types of books in our library ““ from textbooks to Kaplan test prep books for the GRE, GMAT, MCAT and LSAT,” Birdie said.
Motivated by the recent fee hikes, the FSC Book Loan Committee wanted the project up and running by the first day of winter quarter, Rahman said.
“Student affordability is the main goal of our office,” Rahman said. “We know students are in a high-pressure environment to save money, and we know that even buying that $16 book can make a huge difference in a student’s budget.”
As a member of the Book Loans Committee, second-year electrical engineering student Emily Cheung spearheaded the creation of the website.
“I think having a website is important because students will be more likely to look through the online catalog than walk to the library without knowing what books we carry,” Cheung said.
Cheung said she has configured the website so that the members of the Book Loan Committee can update it themselves ““ which means up-to-date, accurate information for students.
Third-year Spanish student Laura Romo said she was saved some of the stresses of buying expensive new textbooks by virtue of the Loan Library.
“I was looking for a $50 book that I had to read during first week, and I was getting worried until I found the book at the loan library,” Romo said. “I hadn’t heard of the loan library before this, but it was really useful.”
The library cyclically replenishes its book supply by means of the USAC Textbook Scholarship. Students can apply for the scholarship online at the start of each quarter. Every quarter, 60 students are awarded $250 to help pay for the textbooks they buy from the student store. Once the quarter is over, the students return these books to the loan library, thus ensuring that all stock remains up-to-date and relevant.
Rahman said the only cost of the project is buying shelves to store the books. Other than that, the project is intended to be self-sustaining.
More than 100 books were reserved in the first week of operation, and members of the Financial Supports Commission said they are confident that these numbers will continue to rise. They plan to advertise the loan library on Facebook, through e-mail and through postings near the reserve section of Powell Library.
Students can now access the loan library’s catalog online at usac.ucla.edu/fsc/textbooklibrary/.
