At the beginning of any academic semester students are rushing to get textbooks. Historically, most academic libraries do not collect text books, however, some may be found in Prospector. In addition, many classes have books which are required for class which not be classified as textbooks but are required reading. Many of these can be found and requested through Prospector.
A couple of helpful suggestions for identifying textbooks in Prospector include:
- Make sure that you are getting the proper edition of the book required for class. Publishers frequently publish new editions in order to keep sales strong and minimize the used book market.
- If you have the ISBN for a textbook this can be used to search for an exact edition. Just enter this in the search box (without dashes or spaces) to look for a specific title
- Remember that Prospector allows for a three week loan period with one renewal. This means you can keep a book for up to six weeks. Find out when the title might be needed in the semester. Sometimes you may be using the Prospector version as a tide over if your item is back ordered. If you need a book for longer, order a second copy (if available) about a week before the first book is due back. Then return the book that is due back.
- Prospector supports link-outs to ecommerce sites for ordering new or used books. In the new Prospector interface go to a full-record and look for the Google Preview which will allow you to peek inside a book and make purchases. In the Classic version of Prospector use the “Find More Resources” button to find links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google and other source
- Is an ebook available to meet your needs? Although many ebooks are only available to registered borrowers from a specific library, there are some which can be lent or accessed. Feel free to just try links, if they work they may be open access. Otherwise look for copies that are offered from libraries for which you have library cards.
Good luck with the new semester in school.
The Prospector team.
