Textbooks : the American point of view

At the start of each new academic year detailed calculations direct the acquisition of basic textbooks in university libraries. Yet, according to the result of a survey conducted in April 1988 among the users of several university libraries in Paris, it remains a general dissatisfaction. In Paris I, the public always insists on having several copies of one title. In order to decide whether she should give greater importance to quantity or to quality, Françoise Malet - then director of Tolbiac university library - went to the United States in May 1988 and tried to get an answer. There, acquisition of textbooks does not concern librarians : entirely provided by the bookstores, textbooks are bought by students who include them in their expenses, everyone taking it for granted. As for related books, American students are also satisfied, being more often looking for several documents on one subject than for one single specific title.
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