Book Ordering

The quality of the Hekman Library’s collection depends to a large degree upon the conscientious and responsible book ordering of faculty. Approximately 65-70% of the library’s book budget is allocated to the academic departments. Each academic department appoints a book order coordinator who encourages colleagues to order responsibly and who is asked to monitor the department’s book budget throughout the fiscal year.  Linda McFadden, Collection Development librarian, oversees the process; faculty members may also receive (or solicit) collection development advice from their liaison librarian. (Note that this process applies only to the college.  Members of the seminary should contact Luge Schemper for details about book ordering for the seminary.) 

To help the book ordering process go more smoothly, please note:

• All items should be approved and initialed by a department's book order coordinator before they are forwarded to Jessica Dickson.
• College book orders can be submitted on book order cards provided by Acquisitions staff (Room L309) or through the completion of an online Book Ordering Form.
• A monthly Fund Status Report will be sent to the department's book order coordinator.  Departmental ordering should occur before May 1; after this date, all remaining funds are pooled and spent at the discretion of librarians.  (This deadline allows the librarians to retain better control of year-end funds, and to identify areas of the collection that may need further development.)
• Faculty members can use WebCat to check the status of a book order, and also to view New Books that have been added to the catalog.  Another option for faculty is to be automatically alerted when new titles have been acquired, by signing up for the library’s RSS feeds of New Titles by subject.

Further questions about book ordering can be directed to Linda McFadden or your department’s liaison librarian.