Books & eBooks
Subject Librarians consult course teams about what resources they need from the Library budget. Course Leaders can choose whether they want course staff to ask their Subject Librarian directly to order books they require, or whether to put them all through via the Course Leader. This can be done via the Staff Purchase Request Form.
Subject Librarians will also order print and eBooks that, in their professional judgement, will give balance to that subject area and fill in gaps in the collection. These may or may not be of direct relevance to the units currently on offer but will be chosen to ensure the collection as a whole remains relevant and current. Books will be ordered as eBooks whenever possible and appropriate, to meet the needs of access and managing the physical library space.
Books ordered will be supplied by our main supplier. In exceptional circumstances (e.g. out-of-print titles), books may be ordered from suppliers such as Amazon or specialist publishers. This is not a process which should be used to alleviate late ordering of books for imminent units. Course staff need to consider their book requirements in good time so that books can be ordered through normal channels.
Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA)
Each year we put some of the book budget aside and upload several thousand eBooks in the areas of art, design, media and performance to our Library catalogue. If two people or more users access the eBook, this triggers a purchase. The purchases come out of the money put aside for them and we are notified when we have spent it. We have the option to increase the budget allocated to this system or re-invest it the following year if there is a surplus.
