Hi Vicki,
Here at Asbury Seminary we are always trying to buy titles at the cheapest possible price. Because of that we buy lots of used books. Normally we use the Freeware JTacq to accomplish this.
In our workflow, titles that are candidates for acquisition are loaded into JTacq from many different sources; spreadsheets, vendor supplied electronic order records, Choice, FirstSearch, ISBN search, electronic Patron Requests, you name it. Then an electronic search is done of our local database to see if we already have the title or a different edition of the title. Titles we don't want are then deleted and a broadcast search is done of all the vendors we use, which includes retail vendors, Amazon 3rd party, ABEBooks, and ALibris. Based on a vendor record, postage can be added to the offer price so that you are really comparing apples to apples. It is also possible to add costs for international transaction fees, and "hassle factor". Buying used does add to our paperwork, that is why we include an extra hassle factor amount to our used book vendor offers. If our broadcast search comes up empty, we then turn to BookFinder. By using this method, for the 2009/10 budget year we are averaging a 30% to 35% discount rate for all titles purchased.
When making our final vendor offer decision we almost never buy anything without a condition of Very Good or better, unless it is the only copy available. As to a maximum price we will pay, that depends on factors such as the subject matter, whether it is needed for a specific program, title rarity, who requested the title, and if the vendor offer is ridiculously overpriced. We would include the full purchase price of the title in the appropriate item record.
Happy collecting,
Don
Don Butterworth
Faculty Associate / Librarian III
B.L. Fisher Library
Asbury Theological Seminary
don.butterworth_at_asburyseminary.edu
(859) 858-2227
----- Original Message -----
From: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
To: acqnet-l_at_lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 3:57:05 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [ACQNET-L] Used Materials
Hello –
I was wondering if anyone could share any guidelines you have created for the purchase of used/out of print materials. Do you have specific guidelines for the condition of the material and maximum price you will pay (relative to the item’s original retail price)? Do you put the new purchase price in the item record, so that the patron pays the full cost of acquiring that item (even if it is quite a bit more than the title originally cost when it was in print)? We will be purchasing additional copies to fill holds, so in all cases, there is at least one copy already circulating in the system.
Thank you!
Vicki
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vicki Meehan
Manager, Acquisitions Department
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
800 Vine St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Ph: (513) 369-6980
Fax: (513) 369-3167
vicki.meehan_at_cincinnatilibrary.org
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Received on Wed Jun 23 2010 - 19:25:29 EDT