Thanks to the Associated Student Body (ASB), the Rio Hondo College library has been able to purchase textbooks for limited loan to students. For more than six years, the ASB has voted to set aside $1,500 each semester for the library to buy the most often requested textbooks to be placed in the library's reserve collection. These texts, obtained from the College bookstore, can be checked out for two-hour use within the library only.

Because the library has a policy of purchasing only non-textbook items, the reserve collection consists largely of course materials on loan from several instructors in various disciplines. The ASB grant supplements the reserve collection and allows the library to provide a much-needed service to students particularly at the start of the semester. It is worth noting that the library's reserve collection contains less than half of all the required course texts and is not meant as a substitute for students' purchase of their personal copies.

The ASB funds are currently used to buy those titles that are most asked for at the circulation desk, used by at least two course sections, and cost more than $50.00 each. It comes as no surprise that these textbooks are frequently in the math and sciences areas. This semester the library purchased 18 textbooks for selected courses in Administration of Justice, Anthropoplogy, Chemistry, ESL, PE, Reading and Spanish.

For more information on the reserve collection, contact library@riohondo.edu.