Students who run into their professors outside the classroom may be seeing less of them in an unexpected place — Middleton Library.
As the new semester gets underway, LSU Libraries is offering a new service to faculty and staff: book delivery to departmental mailboxes.
Sigrid Kelsey, director of library communications and publications, said the initiative is part of LSU Libraries’ continuing effort to make materials easily accessible to the LSU community.
“We’re always trying to get people to use the library and make their lives easier and provide easier access to books, real books,” Kelsey said. “It all goes along with just improving our services.”
Through the Books 2 Geaux program, student workers in Middleton will deliver books to departmental mailboxes for faculty and staff registered with the LSU Libraries within three to four business days of the request.
Kelsey said she expects widespread use of the program once classes start because faculty and staff requests brought about the service.
Books 2 Geaux is available while class is in session, and borrowers can check out up to eight books per day through the LSU Libraries online request form.
“Just looking at effective services we can offer our faculty and staff, that was a natural one to offer since people have asked for it,” Kelsey said.
But there is no pickup service, Kelsey said, so participating staff will still make the trek to Middleton once their books expire.
Participating faculty and staff are subject to the same restrictions as in-person library users. Materials that never leave the library, such as government documents, are not included in the delivery service, Kelsey said.
While there is no current plan to expand the service for on-campus students, Kelsey said she wouldn’t “rule anything out,” but was uncertain if Middleton could support the initiative with so many students on campus.
However, there are other library initiatives available to students.
Funded by the LSU Student Technology Fee, the Gear 2 Geaux program offers computing devices such as laptops, iPads and cameras for check-out.
The e-textbook initiative LSU Libraries began last fall allows an unlimited number of students to checkout e-textbooks for free.
Though Middleton has been offering e-textbooks for several years, getting the word out to students has become a top priority, not only as a money saving method for students but as a way for the library to keep up with modern trends.
“For the students, it’s great that you know about our e-textbooks because that’s something that we’ve really been trying to make sure all students know about,” Kelsey said.