Drexel has money to spend on construction but can’t afford to keep multiple copies of course books? Really? What would happen in finals week if everyone wanted to use the book?

Thanks for the question. The library’s course reserve system allows instructors to make course texts available to their students. Instructors select the books and the number of copies to put in the reserve system. Frequently these books are your instructors’ own personal copies. The reserve system is not meant as a replacement for students buying their own books.  Reserve texts are provided as a courtesy by the library and your instructors, but if we made it a policy to provide enough books for each student, we would not be able to provide other vital library services and resources at the level that Drexel University requires.

Hellboy comics would be a great addition to the stacks.

Thanks for your suggestion. We’re in the process of beefing up our graphic novel collection. We’ll add Hellboy to the list for consideration. Meanwhile, we’ll order Hellboy: Seeds of Destruction for Hagerty’s leisure book collection.

Anything criterion NEEDS to be in our collection.

Thanks for the comment. Yes, the Criterion collection is very important (hence the name). In fact, because the films are so important (and often expensive), we keep most of our Criterion DVDs in the DVD reserve collection behind the circulation desk. Right now we have 85 DVDs from the Criterion collection. Of course, this is nowhere near all of the collection, but, since our budget for film is not infinite, we cannot automatically get everything. If there’s something specific you’d like to see in Hagerty’s collection, please let us know (and let us know who you are so we can follow up) and we’ll look into it.

There are very few books on Finnish culture and history. Could we get some more?

Thanks very much for your comment. Our history and culture resources are managed by Larry Milliken, Humanities and Social Science Librarian Extraordinaire. I’ve alerted Larry to your request.

A search in Drexel Library’s catalog for the keyword “Finland” returns 340 resources on everything from the country’s history to its internet laws. These resources are dispersed all over the Hagerty and Hahnemann libraries’ book shelves as well as online through our licensed databases and e-books.  Similar searches in just a couple of our databases turn up thousands of articles on an even broader range of topics.

Whether you just want to browse or you need specific information, you can get a librarian’s help narrowing these choices by visiting the reference desk, calling 215-895-2755, emailing qmlib@drexel.edu, texting drexellibraryref: to 265010, or sending us an instant message from our website. We’ll help you identify and find exactly what you need.

If you can’t find what you need among these resources, you can contact Larry Milliken directly, and he’ll be happy to help you find what you need. And don’t forget, if we don’t have it at Drexel, you can have it delivered from another library with EZBorrow and ILLiad.

The literature reference section seems limited in relation to medicine; the greater portion is dedicated to Shakespeare!

Thanks for this observation. If you are not finding what you’re looking for on the reference shelf, that doesn’t mean we don’t have it. We’ve got all kinds of literature reference resources that are online only. Check out our Research Guide on literature, or do a database search for English and literature databases. We’re very excited to have added Contemporary Literary Criticism to our list of resources last year. And of course, ask at the reference desk for help, or check in with Larry Milliken, our librarian for humanities and social sciences, if you have questions.

Perhaps have a separate section for newer movies that the library gets in stock? I get tired of going through the alphabet looking for new ones!

Thanks for this great idea. We’re really cramped for space at the moment, so we can’t make a separate section for new DVDs, but we can post a list of the most recent DVDs by the leisure shelves. Also, don’t forget you can always find a list of the most recent additions on the library website. Go to the home page and find the “New Books and DVDs” link on the left. Or just click here.

The tables near the DVDs and leisure books are too close to browse comfortably.

Thanks for the suggestion. You may have noticed some big changes in the leisure book section lately.

While the café closed for summer renovations, all furniture that was not bolted down was moved into the entry way and leisure book section of the library. The renovations are now done, and the café has taken back its furniture.

In addition, with recent consolidation of our reference section, we’ve moved leisure books to an area that used to be devoted to reference books. You’ll now find the latest in leisure reading on the first shelf to the right of the reference desk as you enter the library. A spiffy new sign will go up soon.

Two DVD requests:

Can you get more Food Network DVDs? Like Alton Brown and Iron Chef. Pretty please?

Can you please get the first and second season of “How I met Your Mother”?

Thanks for these great recommendations. We’ll put them on the list for consideration later in the summer.

I don’t know if these exist, but Bill Nye, the Science Guy DVDs would be really really awesome. And The Shining.

Thanks for the great suggestions! To say that Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs do exist is probably the understatement of the year. We’ll get some.

And, of course, what DVD collection would be complete without a copy of The Shining? We had one, but it was lost.  Perhaps it was thrown in the Schuylkill River by a creeped-out engineering student. We’ll get another one so the creep fest can continue.

Can you get The Bicycle Thief on DVD?

Great movie, and great suggestion.  In fact, we already have The Bicycle Thief on DVD, although it’s not part of our leisure collection. This term, the DVD is available from our reserve desk for three day loan. However, this film is frequently put on course reserve, and when that happens, it will only be available for viewing in the library.

Be sure to check out our other great DVDs that are not in the leisure collection. Just make sure to search the entire catalog, not just DVDs, when searching for a title.