Choice Reviews Online
Many of you are familiar with the Choice review cards that the library used to distribute to departments. The librarians periodically received faculty feedback that routing these cards through departments was not efficient. In an attempt to streamline the process and take advantage of our online subscription to Choice, we are now distributing the reviews via e-mail and discontinuing the print cards.
Here’s how the new process works:
Four to six times a year your librarian will e-mail each member of your department a list of reviews.You may indicate your selections directly in a reply e-mail, or you may print out the list and mark your selections there. A helpful feature: When you click on the ISBN link, you will be taken to WorldCat. Near the bottom of the WorldCat screen, you can go to Amazon to read reviews.
If you respond via e-mail, please send the e-mail to your department’s book coordinator, to Jessica Dickson (jdickson@calvin.edu), and to your departmental librarian. If you prefer to respond in print, please give your selections to your book coordinator, who should forward the list to Jessica Dickson.
Include your “Ordering Priority” so that Jessica Dickson can effectively manage your department’s book budget.
- 1 = Essential book - Order immediately
- 2 = Useful book - Order now if our department’s book budget is healthy. Otherwise, wait until April and order if the department’s book budget is underspent. If the department’s book budget is overspent, the book will be ordered the next fiscal year.
- 3 = Optional book – Wait to order until April. If the department’s book budget is underspent, then order. If the budget is overspent, the book will not be ordered either this fiscal year or next.
If you would like a specialized selection search, apart from the normal broad subjects of Biology, Engineering, etc., please notify your departmental librarian.
As you can see, we are trying to involve liaison librarians more fully in this new process, so that we have a better idea of what professors are ordering (which helps us in our own purchasing decisions). We recognize that each department and book coordinator may handle book purchasing differently. So please process orders in a manner that is most efficient for your department within the parameters outlined above.