Schaffer Library encourages faculty members to suggest items for purchase; this helps us shape our collections to meet the current and future needs of the Union community. When making suggestions, it is critical that you provide as much information about the requested item as possible. In particular providing a standard number (such as the ISBN) will speed up the process and help us as we try to acquire the correct item.
Suggestions are welcome for printed books, ebooks, electronic databases, films in all formats, journals -- whatever is needed, we will try to accommodate your needs.
When you request an item, it is helpful for you to tell us what to do with the item when it arrives or becomes available online. Some of the most common dispensations of materials are:
As of February 2023, there are several ways you can make purchase requests, but as we move into the year, we anticipate these will be merged into a single form that will automatically check to see if we currently own the item, as well as set you up to receive updates on the status of your requests. We will keep you posted.
Below are the current options for requesting items for purchase.
In the coming weeks, the Purchase Request form will be the standard way for faculty to request items for purchase. It currently has a soft launch, that does not contain all the bells and whistles yet. If you want to try this out, all you need to do is sign in to your Primo account and use the three dot menu (...) to find the option "PURCHASE REQUEST: Suggest a purchase for the library."
The Suggest a Purchase form is linked from the Schaffer Library's website. Simply scroll down a bit and you will see the Suggest a Purchase box and a link to the request form.
That link is provided here for your convenience.
Before the start of each term, the College Librarian send out email announcing the opening of the Faculty Reading List form. This allows faculty to requests materials that will be needed for their students in the upcoming semester. The default format for these requests is online/electronic, but we honor requests for print or physical media as well. Making these requests as early as possible increases the odds that your items will be available for the start of the term.
Email is our least favored way to receive requests, as it does not prompt for all information and often requires follow up with the requester. However, we value your contributions to building our collection, so we certainly accept email with your requests.
Please use our Library Collections email address to ensure that your request will be seen, independent of staff absences.
librarycollections@union.edu
