The Patriot Spot

Want to read a little Danielle Steele? John Grisham? If you’re looking forward to doing some light reading over the holiday break, the Library now has a collection of Bestsellers available for checkout.

You will find this selection in the student lounge area of the library. That’s the nice sitting lounge to the right of the main entrance to the library. We are featuring a selection of bestsellers in fiction as well as nonfiction. A small sampling of titles includes:

• Kinky Friedman’s You can lead a politician to water, but you can’t make him think: ten commandments for Texas politics.
• Orson Scott Card’s Invasive Procedures.
• Bill Clinton’s Giving: how each of us can change the world.
• Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays.
• Catherine Coulter’s Point Blank.

The books were brought to the library on a book lease plan; generous gift donations made the collection possible. Members of the library staff chose the initial titles for the collection based on popularity, appeal to readers, and variety of genres.

We invite the UT Tyler community to come browse the collection and check out the books. Please feel free to let us know what you read and like. You can do so by commenting here on the blog, using the AskALibrarian link on our webpage, or you can just speak to any library staff member when you visit.

In addition, you can search for bestsellers using the library catalog. One way to do this is to open the catalog and set the “location” pulldown menu to “bestsellers.” You can get the list of available titles that way.

Some details on checking them out:

• Faculty, staff, and students can check them out for the regular three weeks period. There is only one renewal allowed.
• For faculty, these books are different from books in other collections that would be loaned for longer time. The bestsellers can only be checked out as indicated above for three weeks.
• Students: Please note that for the semester break, you can only check these items out if you are enrolled in the spring semester already.
• Courtesy card users can only check out items for one week. They have a limit of three items. This is the same policy as any other checkout. See our borrowing policies for details.
• These titles are not eligible for Interlibrary Loan (i.e. we will not send them out to other lenders).

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. By the way, I already checked a book out as well. I chose Stephen Colbert’s I am America (and so can you!). I’ll be sure to post my review on it when I finish. I would love to hear from readers out there what books they may be checking out, so feel free to drop me a line. You can also make suggestions for titles you think we should add to the collection.

Happy reading.

Do you have a few library fines? If you do, keep reading. If not, read this anyhow and tell your friends. The UT Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library is once again offering its popular FOOD FOR FINES program in December.

How does it work? Glad you asked, read on.

The program will take place during the week of December 2 through December 8, 2007. During this time, patrons who owe library fines can donate canned foodstuffs to the library and get their fines forgiven. We are asking for 12 oz. cans or larger. Please note the cans cannot be dented, rusted, outdated, or missing labels.

And what’s the payout?

• 5 cans = .25 cents to $10.00 in fines.
• 10 cans = $10.00 to $20.00 in fines.
• 15 cans = $21.00 to $30.00 in fines.
• 20 cans = $31.00 to $40.00 in fines.
• 25 cans = $41.00 to $50.00 in fines.

Now, you may ask, is there a catch? There is no catch, but there is some fine print, so to speak.

• The maximum forgiveness amount is $50.00.
• This is not applicable to any fines from Interlibrary Loan (ILL) books, from lost books, or from Reserves.
• All accounts are settled by the library’s Circulation Department. If you have any questions about Food for Fines, you can call Circulation at 903-566-7342.

And what do you do with the cans you collect? Ah, a fine question. We will donate all the collected cans to the East Texas Food Bank.

Remember, if you have library fines, you need to settle your account with Circulation before the end of the semester. Failure to do so may result in a “hold” on your record. A “hold” can prevent you from registering for classes in the spring or obtaining a transcript. So, take care of those fines. If you do it during the week of December 2 through December 8, 2007, you can take care of your fines by donating some canned goods for a great cause.