Readings

• Bishop 9

• MAF's Bookmarks: Acquisition
  

• 4.1B Organizes the LM facility and its collections (print, nonprint, and electronic) according to standard accepted practice
• 4.1D Plans for efficient use of resources and technology to meet diverse user needs

Before you begin, learn as much as you can about your local ordering procedure.  Then, adapt the following list to fall within locally acceptable procedures.

This procedure assumes that you want to keep a local copy of your entire consideration file, which we still recommend.  (Vendors are providing better and better service all the time, but unless you order from only a single vendor, you will have mini-consideration files all over the place - which seems problematical and inefficient.) Also, vendors are now providing strategies for avoiding back-orders, which could replace the padding strategy outlined below. 

1. Work with one vendor at a time.
Decide how much money to spend with each vendor.  Sort out all the items in your file that you want to buy from your first vendor.  You can do this in one of two ways:

• Use your database or spreadsheet to generate a report that lists ONLY the items from this vendor
• Save another copy of your entire file and remove all the records that are NOT the ones you want

• title
• author
• ISBN# or vendor item no. (catalog number)
• price
• priority
• anything else required by the vendor – study their ordering directions

4. Pad your order by about 25%, or the amount recommended by the vendor, or by a lot.  This is one method for avoiding the problem of back orders.  (There may be other methods available to you through the vendor's online systems.) You must have some method for circumventing back ordering because vendors seldom can fill all the items on your list, and you may end up losing money.  It is permissible to pad more, if you don’t want to take the time to whittle your list down.  Make sure to include an accurate “Do not exceed” statement. This figure is the budgeted amount that you are allotting to this vendor. The vendor will try to fill the order as close as possible to this amount.  There is no need for you to struggle with the math and try to get this figure exact - because prices change on a daily basis.
 

5. Check math, although there should not be much to check because your software will do this for you.  Mainly, make sure you are not overspending the amount allowed by the budget, or the amount you plan to spend with this vendor.
 

6. Print/photocopy the number of copies required.  Do NOT type titles onto carbonized forms - avoid this no matter what.
 

7. Generate ONE requisition  that includes all the necessary information: vendor, shipping address, mailing address, contact person, etc.  Use your system’s form, not the vendor’s form.
 

8. In the body of the form, type

• “Books [or videos, or whatever] – see attached list”
• “Do not exceed $xxxx”
• “Fill items marked with an asterisk FIRST.  Fill items marked with a pound sign SECOND.  [etc.] Fill all other items last, starting from the beginning of the list.”  Tip: if you do it this way, you can arrange your items from the cheapest to most expensive.  After your priorities are filled, the vendor will begin from the top of the list - meaning you will get more items because you are buying the cheaper ones first.  "You get what you pay for" does not apply in this situation, because many good books are relatively cheap.
• Alternative: generate your lists so that items appear in priority order.
• With recorded media (music, video/dvd), include a licensing statement for performable media (see Simpson, 2004) to purchase performance rights, if possible and appropriate.

9. Fill out cataloging/automation information (vendor’s pages) and send in with order.  Refer to past versions if available. Keep a copy to refer to next time.
 
 

References

• Bishop, K. (2007). The collection program in schools: Concepts, practices, and information scources (4th ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.