My Thesis Research

When I was an undergrad history student working on my thesis I remember trying to use the library but ending up buying most of my major resources. The topic was Women's Roles in Tudor England. I had a decent collection of books to start off with but not enough to write 50 pages. I went to my college library and was unable to find much to supplement my research. I found through the interlibrary catalog that West Virginia University Library had a excellent collection of works I coulc use. I got up early one Saturday morning and traveled to the hour to Morgantown to check out the collection. The collection was awesome. I found many so many sources I could use. I was so happy until I found out that I could not check them out. Not because the library did not allow you to check out books, but because I was not a WVU student or staff member. I was so upset. I did my best to photocopy the best material and wrote down some titles and authors of others. I knew I would probably not be able to make the trip to Morgantown again before the thesis was due and was very upset. When I got home I did a search on the titles I did not photocopy on the Internet and I found that the majority of them on used book websites, especially alibris and abebooks. So I purchased them for around 5 dollars a piece. For me the price was worth the hassle of travelling to Morgantown and photocopying at the library.

If this is how I felt I can imagine many others who are doing research feel the same way. If the books are available to be purchased and used at your leisure but are not available to be lent through the library it makes sense to purchase the books. If WVU had opened up there lending policy I would have become a frequent patron to there library. It was a wonderful library and had what I needed, but because I could not use the material in a way that I needed I did not return.