Ordering Library Materials

for department collection development liaisons

Consult faculty in your department for titles of books, A/V materials and electronic books to be added to the library collection. Faculty should consider course and project work of undergraduate students, research needs of graduate students as well as new directions the department may be teaching courses or doing research in when requesting library materials.

The WPI fiscal year is July 1 through June 30. You will receive regular statements noting the amounts spent and encumbered and the balance for your department. In order to ensure funds are spent by June 30, it is best to place all orders by April. If all of your department funds are not spent by the end of April, they will be used for the purchase of other library materials. Funds cannot be carried over to the next fiscal year.

Materials requested may be in the form of book, videocassette, DVD, CD, or electronic book. Requests may be submitted through the Book Order Request Form, sent through campus mail to Lora Brueck, or e-mailed to lbrueck@wpi.edu. Do not use the "Suggested Purchase" form to place orders for your department. Please contact Lora Brueck if you need to be authorized to use the Book Order Request form.

Most of our books are purchased through a book vendor to obtain a discount and to receive the material shelf-ready. As it may take between 15 and 60 days to receive material and prepare it for use, it is necessary to submit requests well in advance of when they are needed, especially for material that is needed for course reserve.

Arrival Notification

If you, or the faculty member requesting the item, would like to be informed when it comes in, include that information in your request and the requestor will be emailed when the book is ready for circulation. We hold these books at the circulation desk for 2 days, and then they are shelved.

Multiple Copies

It is library policy to purchase only one copy of an item. If special need is demonstrated for course reserve materials with large numbers of students in the course, we will obtain two copies. The library is very short of space and cannot shelve more than a single copy.

Textbooks

The library, if requested, will purchase required textbooks, as well as peripheral course material, to be placed on reserve for specific courses.

Journal Subscriptions

If you would like to request journal or databases, review our Journal Subscriptions/Licenses Guidelines, then use the online Suggest a Journal or Database form.

Standing Orders

You may request subscriptions to series. Or if you are not sure you would want every volume in a series, we may be able to request notification slips for a series from our vendor so you will be notified when new volumes are being published and you can select which individual titles you want to purchase. Books chosen from approval slips are paid for out of the book budget, rather than the standing order budget.

More Information

Questions? Call Lora Brueck at x6039 or e-mail lbrueck@wpi.edu.

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Last modified: Jul 12, 2006, 09:18 EDT