Where do you guys go…
Where do you guys go when Amazon fails to find you a used copy of an out-of-print book? I've been failing to find one of my exam books, Identity: Community Culture Difference (ed. Jonathan Rutherford) for weeks now -- U Chicago and UIC each have one copy, which are checked out and not due back for a while, and the Chicago public library doesn't have any. It's probably not a big deal -- if I write my committee and tell them I haven't been able to track down this book, I think it should be fine. But if I can get it, I'd rather read it. Thoughts?
I usually try Bookfinder. You might also try having your library get it on interlibrary loan.
If I really want to buy it, I look on Ebay and half.com, also Alibris.
Sadly, no luck at Bookfinder, but thanks for the rec. I would have done interlibrary loan if the book were in an Illinois library, but since it’s checked out, it wouldn’t get here in time. 🙁
No luck at eBay, or half.com, or Alibris. Sigh. But thanks for the pointers there.
I often check Powells and Alibris if it is not available on Amazon.
Here in Chicago, Myopic Books is another good local source (though they don’t have most of their books available to be searched online).
Have you tried calling the Seminary Co-op bookstore? If it is still in print, but from a small academic press, they are probably a good bet.
No, the book’s out-of-print. I did call the Seminary Co-op this morning, just in case they had a dusty copy sitting a shelf somewhere, but no dice. No luck with Powell’s either.
Tried abebooks? http://www.abebooks.com — they’re a site that links to second hand bookshops all over. I’ve had good experiences finding out of print stuff there.
Oh this is cool! A site that cross-references library catalogs.
Try http://partneraccess.oclc.org/wcpa/servlet/DetailDisplay?
query=au%3Ajonathan+n1+rutherford+and+dt%3Dbks+and+ln%3Deng&
sessionid=ueoz78yt91.two&recno=4
aha:
http://www.addall.com/Browse/Detail/0853158711.html
(by ISBN, this is the same book)
back to techdocs.
Aha! The key information was that the _Identity_ title had the same ISBN — Shannon had found that title for me at bn.com, but I assumed it was a different book. I have now happily ordered it, and it will be with me by early next week. Yay! Thanks! Y’all are amazing book-hunters!
And if anyone wants to find the book or any of a truly amazing number of other small UK publishers, it looks like http://www.centralbooks.co.uk is the place to go, really really comprehensive distributer of small UK presses, and they appear to sell directly to the public.
I edited Naomi’s comment to split the long OCLC URL across multiple lines so browsers that don’t know how to do that would handle it better. But I can’t access that URL anyway—is that site available to the public, Naomi?
Generally speaking, no. But most libraries provide access to it, so in the future Mary Anne could log in and have a look-see.
Or you could do it the hard way, one library at a time (not recommended, but sometimes amusing):
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/