The Acquisitions Department handles an average of 65 book orders a day, about 15,000 a year. We also maintain order records for about 3,000 continuations titles

Most of the orders come to us from faculty members. The book budget is divided among the academic departments using a formula which considers, among other things, the number of students taught and the average price of books and periodicals for that department. There are several ways to send your requests to us. We accept orders online via the web form as well as email, catalogues, brochures, ads, Choice cards and completed order forms.  

Please check your orders on CHAL before you send them to us.

Orders are processed within a day or two of receiving the request. First, titles are checked for availability. If the title is available, the order record is entered and the title appears in CHAL.  If the title is not available now, it is put in a special holding area and checked often for availability. If you have not received a report on the order, it is still active. You will receive a report on every title you order from us - either a shelving report saying the book is here, or the request returned with an explanation of why we were not able to get the book. All titles reported "out of print" are verified with the publisher. The average time from placing an order to receiving a book is 40 days. If our vendor does not supply a title within 150 days, the title is canceled with that vendor and reordered from another source.

When a department has spent all of its allocation, orders are held to be used if more money becomes available. Discounts and cancellations often free money; we like to have orders on hand so that we can use this money. Unprocessed orders are held until the beginning of the next fiscal year.