Fundamentals of Acquisitions 2025 - Session 2.0

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Six-week online course that is a basic primer for library acquisitions concepts common to all library material formats. It covers:

  • goals and methods of acquiring monographs and serials in all formats
  • theoretical foundations and workflows of basic acquisitions functions
  • financial management of library collections budgets
  • relationships among acquisitions librarians, library booksellers, subscription agents, and publishers.

This course provides a broad overview of the operations involved in acquiring materials after the selection decision is made.

In FOA, we distinguish between collection development, which involves the selection of materials for the library; and acquisitions, which orders, receives, and pays for those materials. In many libraries, selecting and acquiring materials may be done in the same department—in the smallest libraries perhaps even by the same person. In larger libraries, selection may be done by a collection development department and/or designated subject specialists, while a separate department acquires the selected materials. In essence, acquisitions is the business operation, bringing materials into the library and licensing access to library collections and resources.

Because success in acquisitions depends on ability to collaborate, negotiate, and be flexible to work out win-win solutions with others, this course includes collaborative and social elements.

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