Technical Services Procedures

Ordering and Receiving Materials - Ordering: Out-of-Print Ordering

Page Editor: Don Depoorter
Last Updated: February 11, 2006

When Acquisitions receives an order that is identified by the bibliographer as an out-of-print item, the first choice will be to purchase the item in "new" or "fine" condition. If the item is not available in one of those conditions, Acquisitions will then look for the item in "very good", and if still not available, in "good" condition. Anything less than "good" condition will require contacting the bibliographer for permission to order the item. Exceptions to this guideline will be orders from Special Collections or any order that designates that only a specific item (meaning no substitutes) is acceptable. Whenever Acquisitions cannot obtain an item, the order will be returned to the bibliographer.

Bibliographers can send out-of-print orders directly to the "Out-of-Print Orders" tray that is located under the "Rush Orders" tray in Monograph Acquisitions. This reduces the possibility of the item being sold before we can order it.

Since it is not always possible to purchase the exact copy of a book a bibliographer wants at the price originally shown, flexibility to purchase a book at a slightly higher price without contacting the bibliographer first is helpful. Sometimes, even if a book is found at a higher price, it may not be available by the time the bibliographer is contacted and has had a chance to respond. The following table suggests the upper limits of price increases (not including S&H) that can be processed by Acquisitions without obtaining approval from the bibliographer.