Acquisitions Department Units
Monographs Acquisitions is the unit responsible for placing orders for one time purchases, called "firm orders", processing gifts to the Libraries, and receiving and processing incoming approval shipments. The ordering process begins when the unit receives a book purchase request (BPR)
from a selector. After locating the material at a vendor or with the publisher, the order is placed directly at the vendor's or publisher's web site, by electronic ordering via our Millennium system, or by fax, phone, or email. In rare cases the order is placed through snail mail.
The unit orders all formats of material, including books, movies, CDs, electronic resources, and microforms. Shipments received by the unit are inspected for physical condition and for accuracy against the order; items that are damaged or sent in error are returned. Following the receiving process, monographs that meet certain criteria are copy cataloged in this unit.
Those materials which fall outside the criteria are forwarded to the Catalog Department for in-house cataloging. To view more information about our unit, please visit the Monograph Acquisitions wiki.
The Serials Orders and Claims Unit orders new serials and places claims for issues of serials which have not been received. They are the primary contacts with our periodical and standing order vendors and publishers from whom we order directly. They also claim issues and determine the publication status of our gift and exchange subscriptions. They work regularly with the Library’s selectors to determine if replacement issues should be ordered and to confirm that we want to continue orders when titles have split, merged, etc. or if the price increase is significant. They check invoices prior to payment to make sure that we are receiving our issues and that it is time to renew.
The Serials Check-in Unit manages the day to day receipt of our standing orders and subscriptions. Each day they process several hundred pieces of mail, sorting out the junk mail from the items to be checked in. Each item is checked in on a check in record in Merlin. This unit generally is first to be aware that a title change has occurred and forwards the information to serials cataloging so the records can be updated. They also often notice first that an issue needs to be claimed and they either place the claim electronically or forward the information to the Serials orders and claims unit. They are responsible for making sure that items are routed, marked and labeled correctly for shelving.
The Accounts Payable Unit pays our invoices after they have been checked by the serials unit and the monographs unit. Each week invoices are paid in Merlin and the information is forwarded to University Accounting for actual payment using PeopleSoft programs. This unit also provides weekly updates to the selectors, the library director, the department head and head of technical services on our spending of the acquisitions budget. Most of the department statistics and some library statistics are also collected in this unit.
The Electronic Resources Unit manages our licensing of electronic resources, manages FindIt@MU for the library and responds to problems with our access to electronic resources. This unit works closely with the serials order and claims unit to make sure that new resources we have ordered are licensed, turned on and renewed. Additionally this unit adds 856 fields to existing catalog records when a title becomes available electronically.