Faculty may ask the library to order books throughout the year, usually by going through their book order coordinator or by filling out the book order form. The library relies on faculty as their primary selectors of books, though liaison librarians will order books as well to supplement what faculty select.

The Acquisitions Status Viewer (ASV) allows professors, and especially book order coordinators, to keep track of what has been ordered. The ASV indicates whether an item is available, in process, or not yet received. The data can be imported into Microsoft Excel for further manipulation. The ASV provides this information since 2009.

In order to assist faculty in making selections, the library subscribes to an academic book review service called Choice. Four times a year Jessica Dickson (the library’s Acquisitions Coordinator) will email a list of book reviews to your department’s book order coordinator, who should then distribute the reviews to the rest of the faculty.

Select books from the list that you would like the library to order. Then, email your recommendations to your department’s book order coordinator, to Jessica Dickson, and to your department’s liaison librarian. If you prefer to respond in print, please give your selections to your book coordinator, who should forward the list to Jessica Dickson. When making selections, it is helpful to the library if you:

• Clearly mark which titles you want to order
• Indicate if you object to the library obtaining a specific title as an ebook. (The library may otherwise order the title as an ebook if it is available on our current ebook platforms.)
• Rate your selections by priority using the following scale:

1 – essential book – will be ordered immediately

2 – useful book – will be ordered when the budget allows

3 – optional book – will be put on hold until the end of the fiscal year

We recognize that each department and book order 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.