"We Buy Old Books"

An unfortunate custom (selling their textbooks) seizes many undergraduates in January and June. Thomas Arkle Clark, Dean of Men of the University of Illinois, gives two reasons for these seasonal outbreaks: first, the student's indifference or lack of interest in his work, and second, his need to get out of a financial difficulty....

But immediate cash is not always forthcoming from the sale of textbooks, and the sums obtained are negligible in comparison with the value of the books.

How often graduates wish they had kept their textbooks to brush up on a language, to find a certain formula, to locate that line of poetry!

Again, where will you ever get accepted authorities so economically?...

In general, textbooks formats are becoming more attractive yearly, and do not detract in the least from the charm of well-filled bookcases.

Who would have a library composed only of novels? A choice as limited as that would indicate an uninteresting owner; even a calculus textbook on your bookshelves would catch the eye and hint of a many-sided character.

Consensus of opinion suggests that you keep your textbooks for sentimental reasons. President Hibben of Princeton University suggests: "Every undergraduate leaving college should take his text books with him as a reminder and record of a past chapter in his life and as a nucleus of a library."

There is no library or reference book as handy as the worn and scribbled text book, which has been your companion on and off campus. Can you think of any thing which would be as graphic a commentary on you college life as the notes and names you have jotted on the margins and covers of these books." To what other books have you granted such intimacy of thought" Provost Penniman of the University of Pennsylvania follows this thought with his remark. "I know of no book that can be more properly valued as an 'association book' than the textbook which represents many hours of work and brings to mind some teacher of the past." The Bates Student