Purchasing policy
The Library uses your reading lists to purchase resources for your students.When we receive your list, we consider the estimated number of students and use this to guide us with deciding how many copies to purchase. As you know, we don't aim to provide enough copies for each student to have their own copy. However, the comments we get from students indicate that this is what they expect and they find it frustrating when they discover this is not the case. It would be helpful if you could advise your students early on that they will need to plan their reading to get the best out of the Library's resources. If they do need a particular text for the duration of a course then they should give serious consideration to purchasing a copy.
For the LIbrary to make informed decisions about how many copies to purchase, we also need to know how important the resources are for those taking the module. For example, are they core readings to be used over multiple weeks or are they a suggested source to be used for a particular essay question? We use to following categories to make these decisions:
- Student Purchase: If you want students to buy a particular book then we will maintain a relatively few copies to prevent them relying upon it.
- Essential Reading: We try to purchase one copy for every ten students with copies split between the Core and Main Collections (if certain books appear on multiple list, this policy is unaffected).
- Recommended Reading: We try to purchase one copy for every twenty students taking the module.
- Further/Background Reading: As with books ordered for your own research, we will maintain a stock of one or two copies.
The Core Collection has been set up to optimise usage of material in heavy demand. Copies of all texts indicated as essential on your reading list can be found in here and can be booked in advance. For courses with large student numbers we will, wherever possible, purchase an e-book to supplement the print copies.
Books to support taught courses will be purchased using the following ratios:
Ratio applied for print only
| Type of reading (indicated on reading list) | Number of copies purchased | Loan status allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Core |
1 per 10 students (max 20 copies) |
1 x Core (2 if 100+ students) Short Loan (remaining copies) |
| Recommended | 1 per 20 students | Short Loan |
| Further | 1 copy | Main |
| Student purchase or included in course pack | 1 copy | Core |
Ratio applied for 1st year courses submitted in line with Resource Access Strategy
| Type of reading (indicated on reading list) | Number of copies purchased | Loan status allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Core - student purchase and/or course pack |
1 copy |
1 x Core |
| Recommended | 1 per 20 students | Short Loan |
| Further | 1 copy | Main |
Ratio applied if core text available as e-book
| Number of students | Number of copies purchased | Loan status allocated |
|---|---|---|
| 200 |
10 x print copies 1 x e-book |
2 x Core Collection 8 x Short Loan |
| 150 |
7 x print copies 1 x e-book |
2 x Core Collection 5 x Short Loan |
| 100 |
5 x print copies 1 x e-book |
2 x Core Collection 3 x Short Loan |