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      COWAN - BLAKLEY MEMORIAL LIBRARYUNIVERSITY OF DALLAS      

Acquisitions Policies and Procedures

This Subject Guide is intended to help the University of Dallas understand and interact with the Acquisitions department at the Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library.

Getting Started

Welcome to the Acquisitions Policies and Procedures LibGuide. This Guide will hopefully help you understand

  • The duties and scope of the Acquisitions Department.
  • How to suggest materials.
  • The role of the faculty bibliographer.
  • New additions added to the collection.

Located on the lower level of the Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library, the Acquisitions Department acquires all materials, except journals, for the library's collections, including monographs, standing orders, e-books, and online databases.

Journals, including e-journals, and other serial materials are acquired by the Serials Department.

The Cowan-Blakley Memorial Library strives to create a strong, coherent, balanced, and dynamic collection that supports the University of Dallas' mission of academic excellence. Our mission is to collect the resources needed to support the university's undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as student/faculty collaborative research. As part of this effort, we believe that collection development and selecting materials is a collaboration between departmental bibliographers and subject liaison librarians.  Faculty, through their department bibliographer, may submit book requests to the Acquisitions Department using the Request a Book Form, or by sending the equivalent information (including author, title, publisher, date of publication, and ISBN number) to Debbie Hathaway Acquisitions Librarian, through email or campus mail.  Please take the opportunity to check the title in our online catalog before placing your request.

For journal subscription suggestions please contact Ron Scrogham, Serials Librarian, extension 4130. As journal subscriptions require a long-term annual commitment of funds, faculty requests for new journal subscriptions must have the endorsement of the academic department's chair as well as fit within the current and long-term departmental and library budget parameters. Requests for new subscriptions may be submitted for library review at any time through the academic department's bibliographer or subject librarian liaison.

In addition to placing firm orders for items selected by librarians and faculty, the Acquisitions Department operates an online bookstore   All volumes placed in the bookstore are obtained from donations as well as collection weeding. Currently, the bookstore is listed with two online vendors ( Alibris, Biblio) and is also available for onsite browsing and purchasing.