“The library has been storing English books since a long time back,” an official of the Centennial Library’s Lending Department said. “Therefore it is reasonable for the library to store more English books published before the 2000s since the library’s history roots back to 1923.”
The degree of antiquity and limited quantity of English books at Ewha, however, lead students to face hardships when writing reports or essays. When Fransisca Arfi (International Relations, Graduate School) searched for books for her case study, she could only find supplementary information.
“There was no recent and theoretical-based information related to the Ivory Coast, so books were excluded as my ‘reliable’ source,” Arfi said.
Finding needed textbooks is another hardship students go through due to the lack of updated English books. In the beginning of the semester, some students need to borrow textbooks because of shortages at bookstores. However, the library stores previous editions which are not compatible with those used during class lectures.
The Centennial Library suggests that students use the Purchase Request system for books that are not available.
“This system is used to request the purchase of materials on the library’s Web site, like foreign books that are not in the library’s collection,” the faculty member of the Purchase Request service said.
However, the library’s homepage states that the average delivery time for new foreign materials varies from two to three months.
“I wanted to request the purchase of a book for my class, but I instead searched information on the Internet because by the time my requested book arrived, my report would have been due a month ago,” Kristina Sobolciakova (Political Science and Diplomacy, 2) said.
When books are needed immediately, the library suggested using interlibrary loans, the document delivery service and the service allowing Ewha students to use material in other organizations. However, many students are unaware of these services.
“I was not even aware of the Purchase Request system and many other exchange students aren’t also,” Arfi said.
Despite the services offered, students continue to face difficulties in writing reports due to outdated English books.
Lee Hea-won
heawon_lee@ewhain.net