Ordering Library Material

Academic staff must order books and journals via their Library Representative.

Recommended dates for last ordering and cancelling in the current financial year.

Ordering new books

Book orders can be sent to Library Acquisitions, Floor 1, The Sir Duncan Rice Library, in a variety of ways - order cards, clearly annotated publishers' catalogues or the web Book Order Form. All orders must carry the authorising signature or password of the appropriate Departmental Library Representative. The web order form should be completed, as far as possible, by the recommender and forwarded to the appropriate Library Representative (see instructions at the top of the form) for authorisation. Please provide as much information as possible.

To ensure orders are placed within the current financial year and arrive in time for the start of next session, please send orders to us by the 31st May.

Ordering e-books

Individual books may be available in electronic format and can be ordered in the same way as print books. The library uses a Framework Agreement to select one of three e-book aggregators to supply individual e-books. More information is available.

Ordering new journals

Orders for new journals, including back runs, must be done on the web Journal Order Form. This ensures a better service and a thorough method of recording orders.

• The form must be completed by the appropriate Library Representative who will need to logon with their University computer username and password.
• Please provide as much information as possible (particularly the ISSN).
• Additional comments can be included at the end of the form.
• All order requests will be sent, automatically, to both the Library Serials section and the appropriate Information Consultant.

1st May is the recommended date for placing new orders for the current financial year. Cancellations must be notified to us by 1st September if the journal cost is not shared with another department. If it is shared, notify us by 1st August as we need time to contact the other department(s) during vacation and get a decision.

Electronic resources

Recommending electronic resources which are on a subscription basis must be done on the web Electronic Resources Form.

• The form must be completed by the appropriate Library Representative.
• Electronic resources which are a one off, e.g. dictionary on cd-rom, can be ordered as if they are a book - use the Book Order Form.

Information on the Library resource allocation

Part of the Library's resource allocation is devolved to individual departments. Each academic unit has a Library Representative who administers the fund. Advice on spending the resource allocation and the ordering procedure is explained in the Library Guide

• Spending your Library Collection Development Budget Allocation: how the Library's Acquisitions section works (PDF)

Personal purchases of material for the library

Occasionally academic staff make personal purchases of books or other material which they intend to place in the Library, e.g. items on special offer at a conference or discounted through personal membership of a professional body.

• Details of refunds and invoice payment procedures and a
• Personal purchase form (Word format) for authorisation of such purchases are available.
• Journal subscriptions are excluded from this arrangement.

Reading list material

• Teaching staff should send their reading lists to the library for checking purposes well before the start of the relevant session (before 1st September for the start of the new academic year).
• Library staff will check that material on the lists is in stock and will notify teaching staff of any problems.
• Library staff are also happy to transfer popular material to either the Heavy Demand Collection for overnight loan or to 3 day loan. Again this should be done in plenty of time.
• Contact either the appropriate Information Consultant or Site Librarian.