Requesting Materials for the Library Collection

Books and Audio Visual Materials

Academic Department Purchasing

Each academic department is allocated a budget for the purchase of library materials. These funds should be used to purchase material that supports our undergraduate and graduate curricula, as well as projects and global programs. Each department has its own procedures for placing the orders with the library. Some departments have library liaisons who a submit orders for their department and in others the department head acts as the liaison, in which case the department's administrative assistant usually submits the orders. Contact your department head to see how ordering is done in your department.

Suggesting Popular or General Titles for the Collection

If you would like the library to purchase titles of a popular or more general nature, use the Suggested Purchase Form.

How the Library Orders Materials

Gordon Library orders most material through a book vendor who specializes in library acquisitions to get the best discount and to get materials that are shelf ready when they arrive. If you request is not available from our vendor, we will order directly from the publisher, distributor, or association. The Library will determine the best source to acquire your request.

Order Materials for Courses Well in Advance

Since materials can take from between a few days and several months to come in, please place your request well in advance of the beginning of the term, especially for items you wish to place on course reserve at the library's circulation desk.

Electronic Books, CDs, VHS, DVD or Non-print Materials

Your request may be in almost format, including book and electronic book, CD, VHS or DVD. Due to limited space for our book collection, we do not usually purchase more than one copy of a title, but we will purchase two copies of course reserves for a large classes. If you request a book in print that we already have in electronic format, we will purchase the print title.

Books On Order and New Acquisitions

Books that are "On Order" are included in the online catalog as brief records, which are usually in capital letters to distinguish them from records for books which have been received. The New Acquisitions search tab within the online catalog allows you to easily search for titles that have arrived in the past month.

Journal Subscriptions & Licenses

If you would like to request journal subscriptions, see Journal Subscriptions/Licenses Guidelines. To request a specific title, please use the Suggest a Journal or Database Purchase form.

More Information

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

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Last modified: Aug 29, 2006, 12:33 EDT