UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 8, Page 11
October 21, 1993
In search of... Sleuths go 'round the world to track down books

     Her business card doesn't read Diane Zabenko-"sleuth"-but, a detective
is really what she is. Hardened criminals may not be her forte, but Zabenko
does a great job tracking down hard-to-find books.
     Zabenko and Esther Sewell, her "right hand 'man,'" don't rely on the
usual fingerprints and anonymous phone calls for a lead, but prefer to use
the less common subject, title, author method.
     Students, faculty, and the community can place special orders for
particular books through the University Bookstore. Zabenko, senior
administrative assistant and general book buyer, along with others on the
staff, fill the orders as efficiently as possible. She keeps a close watch
on which books are popular, and orders accordingly from her publishers.
     Zabenko is continually meeting with sales representatives from both
major and minor publishers to fill orders.
     If a book is not in stock at the bookstore (and many sought by
faculty, staff and students are), Zabenko will contact the distributor and
usually have the request filled in seven to 10 days. Of course, delivery
time is contingent upon the locale of the distributor.
     Placing and filling book orders has become an international effort.
The bookstore team has dealt with distributors in England, Australia and
France. If a book request is urgent, the item can be mailed for overnight
delivery. There is generally no charge for shipping although a $5 deposit
is required.
     Although faculty and students are their most frequent customers, the
bookstore has received requests from customers in England, Brazil, Taiwan,
France and Germany.
     "I once had a guy call and place an order and I found I was going to
need some time to locate it." Zabenko said. "It wasn't until I suggested
that I get back with him and he proceeded to give me his country's
telephone code that I realized he was in Taiwan. With this, I chose to fax
the information."
     Customers benefit from Zabenko's 18 years of bookstore experience.
     Sewell said, "We always try to get what the customer wants. If we
can't, we try to give them helpful information and other possibilities so
that they can find it."
     Most people are not aware of the process and regimen used to fill book
orders. Just as a detective depends on clues to locate a suspect, the
bookstore staff expects the same from the individual requesting the book.
"Although most people usually know the author or title of a book," Zabenko
explained, "there are others who will know nothing except that they saw it
in the bookstore and it was pink and blue."
     There are several ways a book can be tracked. Title and author are the
most common methods, although books can be searched by topic as well.
Often, the University library is helpful in locating books.
     Although the number of orders received varies according to time of
year, hundreds of orders are filled each week. Summer is the slowest time
of year, simply because the number of students and faculty on campus drops.
The holiday season is the busiest time, as lots of people give books as
gifts.
     Evoking the U.S. Postal Service motto, Zabenko said, the University
Bookstore team "will go anywhere, anytime, to get any book."
                                                  -Jennifer Jones