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Please allow 3 – 4 weeks from submitting your order for the resources to be added to Library shelves. This also allows us time to add your order to the catalogue and process the resources ready for loan. The Library use specialist bulk suppliers who provide us with a set discount and also library processing services to ensure we can get your resources onto the shelves in the quickest possible time.
Orders for specialist resources, such as teaching artefacts or out of print books, and orders placed at peak times (August – September and May – July) may take longer to process. If your order is urgent, please contact the library and we will do our best to prioritise the order.
We have put together the following guide for University staff with answers to some frequently asked questions about ordering resources for library stock. If you have any other queries which are not covered here, please do get in touch with us.
You may place an order using the online order form.
If you have uploaded your reading list to our Online Resource Lists platform, purchase requests will automatically be generated if the item is not in stock. Any books added to Online Resource Lists do not need to be ordered separately, and we will contact you if we are unable to supply them.
You may request ebooks, print books, journals and e-resources for library stock. Please note that the library no longer orders video cassettes or DVDs as standard, and aims to support video provision through online streaming services where available.
All material ordered will be held in our libraries; we cannot purchase books to be kept by a department, or personal copies.
As much information about the book as possible, so title, author, publisher, publication date. Also, any further course related information will need to be entered on the online order form.
We will endeavour to purchase everything that is required. However, price or supply constraints may affect purchasing. Detailed guidance can be found in our Collection Development Policy and Online Resource List Policy.
A print title will generally take up to a month to arrive, whereas an ebook can be made available within a few days of ordering.
No, not all print titles are available in ebook format and there are occasions that an ebook, even though it is available in electronic format, will not be available to purchase from our suppliers. For example, Amazon Kindle ebooks are only licensed to an individual and cannot be purchased by the library for multiple students and staff to access. The library works with a number of industry specialist suppliers who provide access to academic books online with university-wide licenses.
Ebooks are available to purchase with a variety of licences, but this depends on the supplier.
LLR policy is to purchase the least restrictive licence within budget limits. Detailed guidance can be found in our Collection Development Policy.
Yes, but this will depend on the number of students studying on each module and whether the book is an essential or further reading text.
Our Online Resource List Policy and Collection Development Policy guidance is used to ensure a fair and appropriate number of print copies are held to meet demand while staying within budget constraints. If books are found to be in high demand, e.g., with multiple student reservations, additional copies are ordered automatically where possible. Please note that it is not always possible for us to purchase multiple copies; for example, when a book is out of print, or very expensive.
We will make every effort to source the books required, but sometimes this will not be possible. We will inform you if this is the case and suggest that you contact your Academic Liaison Librarian or the Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian who can liaise with library specialist suppliers and help to suggest alternatives.
Where possible we will order books in ebook format for students to read online. If an ebook is not available we will endeavour to order print copies, and can digitise a certain amount of text from most print books under the CLA Licence to be held on the University VLE. If this arrangement does not meet your needs please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian or the Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian who can help recommend alternative titles in the same subject area.
Complete the online order form as you would for requesting any other resource. Once your request has been received we will look into the subscription costs and licensing to see if the request can be fulfilled. The Senior Library Assistant will then be in touch to suggest a cancellation of a subscription to a similar amount that is not well-used from your subject area. This process will take place once a year to align with subscription periods, and so it is not possible to order journals at short notice.
No – some titles are only available in print, particularly trade journals and magazines. Some online titles are not compatible with our library systems or the University’s IT log-in system, and some online subscriptions do not offer online licenses that work in favour of multiple user, University-wide access. If in doubt, please contact the Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian, who will look into this for you.
Renewals take place at the start of the academic year and this would be when new subscriptions are taken, so it really is best to plan ahead with this sort of order. The license for a journal subscription ordinarily runs from 1 January – 31 December.
Library and Learning Resources aim to agree annual journal subscriptions with our subscription agent during the preceding September.
Please contact our Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian initially with your suggestion. We would usually arrange a trial in the first instance to check that the resource is compatible with our library systems. As the trial is taking place we would look at pricing and licensing restrictions – we would then take this information along with feedback from the trial to a regularly held resources panel where a purchasing decision will be made.
In order to support the roll out of Online Resource Lists and ensure the collection is updated in a systematic way, Library and Learning Resources have moved from an Institute-specific budget structure to a service-based structure. This provides dedicated budget to support requests for new material submitted to Online Resources Lists, the Need More service, and ongoing subscription commitments, while allowing the flexibility to better meet Institute demands for library resources which can vary from year to year. The best way to ensure budget is made available for the resources you require is to regularly update the Online Resources Lists for your programmes.
Please submit your orders for new resources as required and we will do the best we can to accommodate them. If you are likely to need a particularly significant number of new resources in excess of your usual requirements, for example to support a new programme, please contact the Head of Collections or Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian in advance to discuss your needs.
Our budget year runs from 1 August to 31 July. Exact timing may vary from year to year, but as a general rule we recommend all orders for the current year are submitted by 28 April which allows time for resources to be supplied and invoices to be processed.
No. All library resources are ordered centrally from the Library and Learning Resources budget. There is no need to include a cost code, and no funds will be taken from your Institute or Departmental budget.
Suzy Fisher
Acquisitions and Subscriptions Librarian
Email: s.fisher@uwtsd.ac.uk