Faculty Toolkit

Faculty members may recommend materials for purchase using a variety of methods:

• Online order form
• Email, phone, campus mail

Regardless of method, please indicate the following with all requests:

• Your name
• A priority number:*

1. Essential (directly supports a course or program)
2. Useful (provides supplementary support for the curriculum)
3. Nice, but... (materials of interest that do not provide curricular support)

• Format preference: Library default preference is ebook, then paperback, then hardcover, depending on availability.
• Urgency: Please specify RUSH if the item is needed for a current class.

* Note: All priority 1 items will be purchased before funds are released for purchasing priority 2 and 3 items.

Books
Books may be requested in e-book, hardcover, or paperback format. Depending upon availability, the library's default format priorities are ebook, then paperback, then hardcover. Paperbacks are treated with a special adhesive cover to increase their durability. If you wish the library to purchase a specific format, please indicate your preference with your order.

Ebooks are purchased with a “single user” license, meaning that borrowing is possible for one patron at a time. The library collection also includes many “unlimited user” ebooks licensed through subscription packages. 

Materials older than several years may be out of print and no longer available. This is especially true for small university press titles. For titles unavailable in new condition, CDS will attempt to find them in good used condition from reliable dealers and for reasonable prices. CDS will contact you if the cost seems unreasonably high to discuss the need further.

The library does not purchase textbooks for the collection unless the textbook is the best or only source of information on the subject.

Generally, the library does not purchase duplicate copies of books and other materials. Faculty publications are an exception.

Films
The library no longer purchases the VHS format. DVDs will be purchased by request for classroom use. For films intended to be shown at campus-wide events (outside of the classroom), please indicate the need to purchase public performance rights at the time of the request in order to avoid copyright infringement.

The typical order fulfillment process requires a minimum of several weeks from the time of your request to when the book is placed on the shelf. Books published by university presses and those that are back ordered either because they are several years old or newly released can take much longer.

If an order relates to a class in the current semester, please indicate this with your order or contact Collection Development Services (ext. 3933) with the request.

The library purchases two copies of books authored or edited by faculty —one for the circulating collection and one to be archived in the Faculty Publications collection.

If you are the author or editor of a forthcoming book, please contact the library so that we can purchase it at the time of publication. We often hear about faculty books from indirect sources, but on occasion we have been unaware of a publication.