Materials Purchase Guidelines
Guidelines and Procedures for Library Materials Purchases
The following guidelines are for faculty and librarian subject liaisons.
Book Order Requests
- Please check the LINUS catalog to determine whether or not the item is already available in the library's collection to avoid duplicate requests.
- Please use our online request form. Print versions of the forms are also are available from the Acquisitions/Serials Department, the department faculty library representative or the Reference Desk. Please provide as much bibliographic information on the form as possible about the item you want to purchase.
- Delivery time varies from 1 to 3 months on published books, and indefinitely on books ordered from pre-publish notices.
- You may request an item by "rush." Unless marked as rush, books are ordered according to the date the request form is received. A "rush" item is ordered and processed immediately, but still may take 1 to 3 months for the library to receive.
- When selecting a book from a flyer, publisher's catalog, or sale catalog, please cite this source when you submit the online request form and then send the flyer or catalog pages to the Acquisitions/Serials Department. Or send the printed form with the flyer attached. We do not return the flyers.
- It is the library's policy to purchase the hardcover edition of books whenever possible. The paperback edition is selected only if hardcover is not available. It is general Library policy to not purchase textbooks, instructor's manuals, pamphlets less than 50 pages, and ephemera.
Book Approval Plan Notifications
The Acquisitions/Serials Department continually sends approval plan book notification slips to department faculty library representatives for distribution to department faculty. The slips come from two vendors, YBP and Midwest Library Service. The multi-form slip indicates the book has not been sent to the library as part of its approval plan, but is available for order. If you are not interested in the book, please return the slip unsigned to the Acquisitions/Serials Department. However, if you wish the library to order the book, it is important that you sign your name at the top of each slip and return to the Acquisitions/Serials Department as soon as possible. Do not complete an online book order form or a print version of the form, simply return the signed slip.
The longer you keep the slip, the greater the chance the book will go out of print. In order to ensure the availability and timeliness of your order, please return slips by the date printed on the top right corner.
Choice Book Review Cards
Cards indicating newly published titles reviewed in the magazine Choice are issued monthly. Faculty library representatives will be sent these cards. As with approval plan notification slips, sign and return to the Acquisitions/Serials Department if you wish the library to order the item; return the card unsigned if you do not.
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