We order books, e-books, videocassettes, DVD's, scores, music CD's, CD-ROM's, maps, microfilms, slides, and access to World-Wide Web resources.

Ordering consists of deciding if we should place orders, actually placing orders, and notifying concerned parties of what actions we've taken with orders.

Academic departments directly chose and control what is ordered, so Acquisitions is in some ways acting as a purchasing agent. This makes sense if you think about what you would do if you were buying something for someone else.

When we order at the library:	If you were ordering something for someone else at home:
An academic department sends an order to the library.	"Sure, I'll order a sweater for you."
The Acquisition's Librarian determines whether the order has the signature of the department "liaison." Only liaisons have the authority to spend money for a department.	"What?!? What do you mean you didn't want it? Your friend Joe said you wanted me to order it for you."
The Acquisition's Librarian determines whether the department has enough money to pay for the item.	"I'm not ordering anything for you---you don't have any money!"
We "stamp the orders in" with a date stamp and record statistics about the orders.	"You asked me to order 5 sweaters for you last month, not 8!"
We search orders in the online catalog to determine if we already have the book or a very similar book.	"Sure, I can go through the closet and make sure you don't have one already."
We find out if the item is available and from whom by searching databases and catalogs and making phone calls.	"I'll go through some catalogs and call some places and find one."
We place orders, usually by sending them in regular mail, but sometimes using the phone, e-mail, or a fax.	You call the company and charge it or mail the order with a check.
We notify liaisons that we've placed the order for their department.	"I ordered the sweater this morning."

Notifications that items have arrived in the library are done as a part of ordering, but Accounting & Receiving and Acquisitions Receiving handles all actual goods.

Student Ordering Tasks

Stamping orders in---Stamping the date on orders and keeping statistics about orders.
catalogusmai searching---Searching in the online catalog to make sure we don't already have the item.
Collection Manager (BNA database) searching---Searching in our primary vendor's database to see if the books are available from them and how much of a discount we can get.
Amazon searching---Searching Amazon.com to find information about a book.
Returning slips to departments---Sending slips back to departments notifying them of the status of their orders.
Returning notifies to requesters---Sending slips back to the people who originally wanted an item to let them know that we have it.
Making inquiry calls---Calling publishers to get information.
Writing inquiry letters---Writing (or e-mailing) publishers to find information.
Tracking down vendor/publisher/author info---Searching various print and online sources to locate people and publishers who we want to order things from.
Preparing contact sheets--Filling out forms to prepare orders.
Order Follow-up--Doing procedures to resolve old orders that have never been filled.
Order Creation--Creating order records in the library system.
Special ordering--Doing tasks associated with purchasing scores, CD's, videos, CD-ROM's, music scores, etc.
Processing vendor notices--Recording and acting on information about our orders that our vendors send to us.

Vendors

Blackwell North America (BNA)---Our primary vendor; we purchase 90% of our materials from them. They have an online database called Collection Manager which departmental liaisons use to request materials, and which we search. If we find a record for a book in it which states that the book is available, we automatically send the order to them.
We also order materials from numerous other vendors as required.

Order Types

Web orders are submitted via the world wide web and printed from a Microsoft Access database.
Collection Manager orders are submitted via Collection Manager and printed from Collection Manager.
Form orders are pre-printed slips, a form of ordering which is now obsolete.
BRF's (Book Request Forms) are print forms which information is written or typed onto. These are also now obsolete.

Common Ordering Problems

When doing any kind of ordering work, these are the types of problems you should be looking for:

Orders don't indicate what fund is to pay for them. Orders lack signatures authorizing them.
Order lacks essential information about what is being ordered.
Information is almost, but not quite exactly right.
Something from one pile of orders (or papers or notices) is mixed up in another pile.