affording seminar books

[serenade]

How do you afford seminar books on a grad stipend budget? The book list for one of my upcoming seminars in the fall is already posted, and buying used books will cost around $293 for one seminar ( x 3 seminars = ~$900 per semester). Is it typical to spend a large amount of your stipend on books? 

 

Also, this is unrelated, but when looking at one of the course descriptions for a seminar, it says it requires a "bibliographical essay." Does that mean historiographical, as opposed to primary source based? 

[rising_star]

Simple answer is that you don't buy them all. Buy the ones most closely related to what you study and borrow the rest from the library or share copies with a classmate.

[ashiepoo72]

I buy books on Amazon (if you don't mind writing and highlighting in used books, you can get them really cheap) or abebooks.com. Sometimes you can find stuff on paperbackswap.com, too, and I think you get free credits when you sign up. I'm someone who writes all over books, so I need to buy them, but if you don't then definitely check out the library, which may have print and digital copies.

Is the bibliographic essay an assignment in the course or something you have to do for entry into it? You should contact the professor for more detailed information on what they want, but it sounds like a literature review to me.

[serenade]

The paper is a requirement for the course. I'm thinking it means lit review/historiography as well. Thanks guys.

[TMP]

I buy books most relevant to my fields and dissertation.  Otherwise, I borrow them from the library.

 

Both bibliographic and historiographic essays fall under the rubric of "lit review."  They have different purposes.  The former focuses on a topic and the survey of literature pertaining to it.  This is great for topics that are narrow in focus or not well studied.  The latter engages with a broad historical question that various scholars have explored using different theories and/or methods.  This is great for a topic that's been well studied but too vast for the bibliographic review.

 

For example, the education of Southern children during the American Civil War would be great for bibliographic whereas a topic of Southern family experiences during the Civil War through the lens of women's history would be better suited for the latter.

[serenade]

Both bibliographic and historiographic essays fall under the rubric of "lit review."  They have different purposes.  The former focuses on a topic and the survey of literature pertaining to it.  This is great for topics that are narrow in focus or not well studied.  The latter engages with a broad historical question that various scholars have explored using different theories and/or methods.  This is great for a topic that's been well studied but too vast for the bibliographic review.

Never knew this distinction existed. Everything makes sense now. Thanks!

Edited June 11, 2015 by serenade

[maelia8]

I afford seminar books on a grad budget by not buying any at all I make careful use of the public library, the university library, interlibrary loan, library consortium book loans, google book samples, ebooks in the library subscription, scans of physical copies on permanent reserve, and, when I must, pirated pdfs in order to get ahold of what I need. I look over syllabi very carefully and reserve the books early, with backup copies bookmarked if mine gets recalled.

 

There have been a few books that I decided to put on my buy list after reading them because I thought they would be good for future reference, but it's hard to know that before you've read the book, so I don't buy any class reading in advance. Because my grad seminars are on specialized topics and generally contain 8 students or less, there is rarely competition at the library for the book that I need, and if there is, I can usually get ahold of a copy through one of the aforementioned backup methods. 

 

Call me cheap, but I'm the only person in my cohort who managed to save money for a new laptop and put 10% in my IRA this year while paying Bay Area rent prices. I'd love to have a personal library, but my high rent and tiny space (there is a limit to how many books you can store in an 8'x10' room) make that impossible. 

[ToomuchLes]

Call me cheap, but I'm the only person in my cohort who managed to save money for a new laptop and put 10% in my IRA this year while paying Bay Area rent prices. 

 

Glad to see someone else caring about their retirement now    

[TMP]

There have been a few books that I decided to put on my buy list after reading them because I thought they would be good for future reference, but it's hard to know that before you've read the book, so I don't buy any class reading in advance. Because my grad seminars are on specialized topics and generally contain 8 students or less, there is rarely competition at the library for the book that I need, and if there is, I can usually get ahold of a copy through one of the aforementioned backup methods. 

Man, even with intrar-state library loans, there's still competition for books for a seminar of over 6 people!  Luckily, we're pretty good at sharing physical copies of books.  Our professors have been really great about flexibility if there are enough complaints.

Edited July 9, 2015 by TMP

[maelia8]

@TMP yeah, a few times someone got the library copy before me and then I had to borrow it for a few hours to make a scan, which I then shared with the rest of the class. A few times, a professor has offered up an extra personal copy to be placed in the departmental grad library/study space for us as well, which I thought was really nice. I haven't yet failed to get ahold of a free copy of a book and had to buy it at the last minute, but achieving this feat has really required a lot of careful prep and planning. I think it's worth it considering the money saved, though.