Tuesday Tip Jar

I was a little stumped today coming up with an idea but I sat here thinking about what I had already done today, two tips ideas jumped out at me.

SO, for this week, this one may be Michigan-specific since I don't know how other states handle it but one of the few downsides of living in a relatively small town sometimes is a lack of book resources. We have a wonderful local independent bookstore - which I would shower with funds and gladly support that store if we HAD funds to do so. There's the little mall's Barnes and Noble but it's pretty small. Finally, the closest Borders and full-sized B&N is 45 minutes away in South Bend.

However, as an alternative until that time, DaHubby and I continue to be amazed and blessed by the books we can acquired through Michigan's interlibrary loan program now called MeL or the Michigan eLibrary.

While our local library as well as the library the next district over are very well stocked considering, they just can't have everything all the time. So, I've ordered fiction, reference books, homeschooling books, and workout videos from MeL. It takes a couple days for it to arrive but then I get to keep it the standard borrowing time (if not longer) and often have the option to renew it online.

Recently, as DaHubby's been working on his capstone paper, he was trying to not rely solely on online citations and the search for nuclear field books began. Thanks to MeL, I picked up one book this morning from Eastern Michigan University's library. And, when I got home, the other one we had requested from Michigan Technological University had come in since I had stopped by this morning.

So, instead of having to drive 2.5 hours to the University of Michigan (the only other place who held those books that we could find) to make extensive copies ('cuz dem mean ol' Wolverines won't let anyone other than fellow Wolverines use their books without exorbitant fees *wink*), I had two books for DaHub's research delivered to our local library less than a mile away.

For more Tuesday Tip Jars, stop by Blogmommas.com today.