So many books, how can you have the time?

At my library, graduate students and faculty members are allowed to check out 100 items for sixteen weeks. In my three years working at the library, I have had only three individuals who have reached this limit. Most patrons are baffled when we tell them they can have 100 books. What could you possibly be doing with 100 books?

I always imagine grad students sitting in their tiny, shared offices, books stacked around them, like a fort. Or possibly set up like one of those attractive octagons you find in bookstores where the employees have too much time on their hands. Imagine the fort you could build with 100 books. Actually, just click on the link and you'll see a pretty cool book fort, but I digress.

The biggest problem with grad students hoarding books (no other word for it, I'm afraid) is that no one else gets to use those books or knows that they exist. I get half a dozen requests to recall books from grad students who have had their books for a YEAR or more. And I can't tell you how many angry emails I've gotten when a grad student is told they have a week to return the item that they've had for 40 weeks. "But you don't understand, I NEED this for my thesis I've been writing for six years!" No, I don't think you understand, this is a library not a book adoption agency.

Moral of the story: Only borrow what you can actually read and don't be cheesed that other people exist that want to read the books that you have squirreled away in your office under stacks of ungraded papers and empty coffee cups.

Thanks for reading and remember: don't fold down the pages of your library books.