Sudden Position Guide to Acquisitions

Dive into the evolving realm of library acquisitions, where expertise spans collection development, e-book and streaming media procurement, vendor negotiations, and budget management. Gain practical insights, vital skills, and trusted advice to excel in a challenging, multi-faceted role.

Library acquisitions work requires knowledge and competency in a variety of areas, including traditional collection development, e-book acquisitions, print monograph, streaming media, and serials acquisitions, familiarity with scholarly communications and open education, licensing electronic resources, negotiating with vendors, cataloging, and working with library systems. The work is challenging and constantly evolving, and librarians new to acquisitions will need a wide range of skill sets to perform their responsibilities well in this position. Budgeting and accounting, managing purchase orders and invoices, evaluating usage statistics, submitting fiscal reports, supervising employees, and communicating effectively are just some of the necessary skills needed to work in acquisitions. This Sudden Position Guide to Acquisitions will provide the librarian who is just starting out in the field with all the best practices, tools of the trade, advice, and background knowledge needed to succeed in their new position.