Faculty tips: Purchase Requests

Duns Scotus Library needs your expert ideas for book and DVD purchases that students can use in their academic studies. Our collection development policy explains how the library supports the programs at Lourdes University. (E.g., we don’t buy automotive manuals or comic books.) The money for these purchases comes from the library budget.

Each March there is a fiscal year deadline but requests can be sent at any time of the year.

Looking for reviews on titles?

• Choice is a monthly publication of current reviews for academic libraries. It is indexed in EBSCO and the print version is available in the library to read or browse reviews of new titles by discipline.

• Education Media Reviews Online (EMRO) is an online database of DVD reviews and other media. Video Librarian is a publication of reviews that include educational films.

• Book reviews in journals or trade publications in your discipline can be searched by book title or subject using the Ebsco Discovery Service and limiting your source type by "Reviews" and by years to see the most recent.

• If you have a TLCPL library card you can use NoveList Plus and see reviews for non-fiction books in the areas of history, current events, biographies, political science.      

Submit a request from your department: Use the form located on the intranet under Academics. After notifying your department chair fill out a form for each item you would like the library to purchase. No signatures are required if submitted electronically. If you have a flyer with sale price information put it in the library mailbox or scan and send it to the library.

What happens after the form is submitted:

• The request is printed from library email, and the e-request is archived for a year
• The library director approves the printed purchase request
• The title is checked against the catalog to avoid duplicate purchases
• Prices are compared from different vendors and then the title is ordered. (Cheaper isn’t always better)
• Upon arrival the new item is cataloged and the appropriate department is notified that it is ready to be checked out!

What else:

• Sometimes used books are ordered if a title is out of print
• Some titles are available as an eBook
  

"Not everyone is an expert. Consumers are constantly looking for someone to guide prepurchase decision making and even look for reviews postpurchase to confirm good judgement....book reviews--that is, reliable book reviews free of bias or commercial interests--still play a key role in the more judicious process of evaluation and selection in both research and collection building." Golderman, G., & Connolly, B. (2012). eReviews. Library Journal, 137(12), 105-109