A book from ASU’s library recently took a trip to Florida.
The book was the first shipped as part of ASU Libraries’ new book shipment service that sends books out from the main locations to students’ homes at no cost to the student.
The goal of the service, which officially began Oct. 1, is to give ASU students who live outside the Phoenix area the same access to library materials that on-campus students have, said Ginny Sylvester, head of Access Services and Interlibrary Loans at Hayden Library.
“We have students all over the place,” Sylvester said, referring to the more than 3,000 students across the country enrolled in ASU Online. “They are all entitled to the same services.”
While many books are available to students as online sources, there are many sources that have not been transferred to the new platform, Sylvester said.
The service is not exclusively for ASU Online students, she said. Any student can have materials shipped to them, whether they live in the Valley or not, but shipping can take several days.
FedEx delivers the requested books, and the cost is expected to be minimal for ASU due to a state contract shipment rate with FedEx, Sylvester said.
To use the service, students select a book to put on hold and then choose “distance education” from the list of possible pickup locations on the ASU Libraries website.
Undergraduates can check out materials for 14 days, while graduates may keep them for 30 days and doctoral students can hold them for 90 days. The checkout period begins as soon as the book is chosen on the site, Sylvester said.
All late fees apply, but unlimited renewals are available as long as another person does not request the book, Sylvester said.
The service cannot ship media such as CDs or DVDs because they can only be checked out for seven days. That time frame is too small to expect materials to be returned in time, Sylvester said.
Social work junior Marina Jessop, who lives in Show Low and commutes to the Downtown campus, said she was excited to learn of the service.
“I could see myself using it,” she said.
Arizona public libraries cannot take on the costs associated with a similar service, said Anna-Marie O’Brien, library manager at the Tempe Public Library, but she admired the idea behind it.
“The ultimate objective for all libraries is to get the information in the hands of the people,” O’Brien said.
Since the service is brand new, it has seen limited use. The book sent to Florida was the only book shipped since it began.
ASU librarians plan to review the use of the service to determine its future.
“We really are interested in seeing how this service is used,” Sylvester said.
Reach the reporter at alex.ferri@asu.edu
