by Collette O’Neal (Whetstone staff writer)

Parker Library

Parker Library

There are 500 new books in Parker Library thanks to the Library of Congress (LC).

They came through the LC’s Surplus Book Program, said Roger Getz, director of Parker Library.

The program is offered to non-profit libraries.
Getz made two trips to Washington D.C in October and went through about 10,000 books each time. He chose a wide range of subjects along with some reference material.

The total retail value of the books is about $30,000

Nearly all of them have been published in the last year.

His main focus is to find books that are based on the curriculum.

“It means a lot to our library and our college to try and update our resources with what is going on,” Getz said.

Freshman Meranda Merrit agrees.

“I think an updated library is one of the best ideas, especially for research purposes,” she said.

The books are free but the college must pay for shipping.

Sen. Thomas Carper paid for the first 10 boxes sent to Wesley and the others were taken out of the book budget.

Students and faculty can request titles and are highly encouraged to do so.

The requests are put on a wish list and receive priority consideration when searching. Currently there are 232 books on the list.

Getz says he enjoys making the trip.

“It’s interesting and a lot of fun, but serious work,” he said. “I don’t even take a lunch break when I go there. If I do, then I won’t get finished on time.”

The total cost for the one day trip is $90 and takes between six and seven hours to go through all the titles.

He plans to make more trips to add to the collection

Getz hopes to replace a majority of the current collection with the new material.

“We are honestly looking at a long term project,” he said. “You can’t just snap your fingers and replace 100,000 books.”

The books are still going through the cataloging process but will be available for student use by next semester.