Library Policies

These are policies for budgeting, accounting, acquiring, purchasing and fiscal management of library resources.

See our Collection Development Policy for more information concerning the principles upon which selection is made for library resources.

See the Donations Policies for information concerning accepting donations.

Acquistions Forms

Excerpt from the Collection Development Policy:

Responsibility. Every acquisition recommendation the library should be forwarded to the Technical Services Office with specific information required for accurate ordering (i.e., author, title, ISBN, edition, date). All recommendations are checked against current library holdings and orders in process to eliminate acquisition of duplicates. The library will make all decisions with regard to the source of purchase. Unless otherwise instructed by the Library Director, faculty members may not financially obligate the library to acquire materials in any way.

Timeliness. For most materials, the acquisition process takes at least two months under the best of conditions. Priority is given to "rush" requests for materials such as those titles that are needed for reserve reading assignments and should be accompanied by an appropriate notification of their intended use.

With the exception of some which have to be ordered directly from publishers, all periodicals are handled through subscription agency(s), with the entire list reviewed and altered only once or twice each year. Participation in Duplicate Exchange programs with other libraries is a preferred method for the inexpensive acquisition of missing volumes.

Communication. To facilitate open communication with faculty and others who are expected to provide recommendations that help to develop library collections, the library will communicate regularly in the following ways:

• Routing of flyers, publishers' blurbs, and catalogs.
• Report of materials recommended but already owned or not available.
• Report of arrival of new materials to requestors.
• Report of new additions to library collections.

The purpose of binding books is to provide materials for the library that are long lasting and cost efficient. When paperback books are used as frequently as they are in the library, the life of the book is shortened significantly. Paperback bindings break, pages become loose, and books fall apart much sooner. As such, it is our intent to acquire materials in hardback to ensure that they will remain in the best shape possible for the longest amount of time. In light of this, the following are general procedures that the library follows:

New Materials:

• The library (Acquisitions) will retain the policy of first ordering hardback books at the least expensive price.
• In the event that only paperback books are available for purchase, books will be purchased from Midwest Library Service and bound using Vinabind bindings.
• If the requested books from Midwest can't be bound using the method we have selected (Vinabind), we will have them use Kapco binding (a less sturdy binding) instead.

Damaged Materials:
In the case that a book must be sent to the bindery to be rebound or repaired, the following policies will be considered:

• If a book is out of print and significant to the library’s collection, it will be sent to Golden Rule Bindery for repair.
• If a book is in print and the cost to purchase a new copy is significantly higher than repairing the item, the item will also be sent in for repair
• In the case that a book is too damaged to make repair a possibility, the book will be discarded and a replacement sought it its stead.

Created 5/23/2003. Rev. 8/4/2010 - lcs