Collection Development: Firm Orders

At the beginning of every fiscal year, each academic department is allotted a certain amount of money to spend on library materials. Departmental liaisons generate orders for library materials using the New Library Resource Order Request form, which are then completed by Collection Development staff. Our goal is to have all of the money in the firm order budget completely expended by the end of the fiscal year.

Library allocates budget into serials, monographs, & approval plans (preliminary): April 2025
Preliminary budget approved by Faculty Library Committee: April 2025
Budget approved by Dean of Libraries: May 2025
Departments begin to submit orders: September 2025
Departmental faculty liaisons encumber 40% of firm order budget: December 2025
Departmental faculty liaisons encumber 80% of firm order budget: February 2026
Departmental faculty liaisons submit 100% of firm orders: March 1 2026
Librarians finish encumbering any remaining funds: April 2026

• What is expected of departmental liaisons to the library?
  • Each subject area budget in the Libraries' firm order fund has an assigned liaison from the College's teaching faculty who is appointed by their department chair or program head. This faculty member participates in selecting one-time materials (books and media) for the library's collections on behalf of their designated subject area(s) using their allocated firm order budget. They are also welcome to submit requests for journals, databases, or other subscription resources using a separate request process.
    Occasionally, Collection & Content Services may reach out to the departmental liaison to survey relevant faculty regarding subscription resources. The purpose of this survey is to allow instructional faculty who may have more knowledge of the resource and its use on campus the opportunity to weigh in about the value the resource may bring to the Libraries' collections, or their research and instruction specifically. In these cases, the dissemination of this survey through the liaison to relevant faculty in their department and/or schools is very valuable to our analysis.
     
• How much money is in my firm order budget this academic year?
  • Firm order fund balances are tracked via the attached link.
     
• What kind of materials can I request the library to purchase?
  • The firm order budget is specifically allocated for one-time material purchases inclusive of books, e-books, DVDs, or streaming media. You may request any material that you find suitable for the library and we encourage requesting books or DVDs you would like to use in your courses. Please be aware that we adopted an e-preferred acquisitions policy in 2020 and have updated our New Library Resource Order Request Form to reflect this change. This means that we will always attempt to purchase a requested title as an e-book first (if it is available electronically), with enough access to support your specific research or curricular needs.
    Please also be aware that we purchase e-book titles from academically licensed platforms and not all books will be available electronically. Because the titles must be licensed for use by the larger academic community, we are unable to purchase Kindle e-Books or anything that needs a platform to host it such as individual PDF or ePUB files not already part of one of our existing platforms.
    If you are interested in requesting a subscription resource such as a journal or database, please use the New Databases & Journals Request form.
     
• Can I request print materials?
  • All book requests will be received in an e-preferred manner unless the title in question is unavailable electronically or by specific faculty request. You can read more about our e-preferred acquisition policy here. For more information on physical course reserves, please see the Course Reserves guide.
     
• The library has a DVD I want to use for a course, can I make it available for use online/find streaming access?
  • The College Libraries currently have access to several streaming video databases. We would be happy to check on access to any particular film from these existing sources or check to see if we are able to locate streaming access from another source for an academic audience.
    Due to copyright and licensing restrictions, the library is unable to provide access to commercial streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime, etc. for educational or public performance purposes.
     
• I found an e-book/streaming video in the library catalog that I would like to assign to my course. Can I use library materials as course materials?
  • Yes, absolutely! We recommend that you fill out the Reserves Request form so that the Collection Development Librarian can confirm the library's level of access to any specific electronic materials you identify for classroom use. In some cases, and when possible, additional licensing may need to be acquired in order to accommodate access for a large class for simultaneous access for the duration of a semester. Further information on assigning library materials can be found on the Course Reserves guide. For more information on using library eBooks please use this guide of finding and using eBooks. 
     
• How do I place a book on physical reserves?
  • For more information on physical course reserves, please see the Course Reserves guide.

If you have any additional questions, please contact the Collection Development Librarian at kippskl@cofc.edu.