Q. What is the library's acquisition policy for book purchase requests?

The library has a predominantly patron driven acquisition policy which encourages all current faculty, students, and staff to suggest purchases of research monographs and books that will assist in their academic research and/or vocation.

These requests are made through the library's Suggest a Book form.

What book formats does the library purchase?

The library has had an "electronic first" acquisition policy since January, 2019. This is due to Fuller's student and researcher demographics that are now predominately online, ensuring that finite acquisition funds provide resources accessible to the greatest number of Fuller community members globally. 

Patrons are first encouraged to request titles that are not currently held in any format, but the library will also consider requests to provide eBook access to titles that are only held in print or to expand eBook access that is currently limited. The library will also consider purchasing titles in print format when no eBook format is available. 

The library's acquisition policy does not allow the purchase of print titles that are currently held in eBook or available for purchase in eBook format. The library also does not fulfill Interlibrary loan requests for print titles that are already held in accessible eBook formats or purchase duplicate copies of print works.

The only standard exception to the above print acquisition policy is for required course titles that are unavailable in unlimited user format and where sufficient limited-user eBook access is cost-prohibitive. Requests for further exceptions will only be considered if there is a specific reason why the existing digital copy is inaccessible for the purposes of the patron's research.

Personal preference for print formats will not be considered for exception to this policy. Patrons who prefer print format are encouraged to purchase titles for their personal research collections. 

What subject areas does the library purchase?

Patrons can view a detailed summary of the library's monograph acquisition policies in the document below.

It includes all actively collected research areas arranged into five distinct priority levels. Each priority level has a specific acquisitions posture based on the status of the requestor. Select research areas may also have acquisition conditions regarding recency of publication, academic audience, religious orientation, or nature of the request (e.g. ECD course texts).

The library will make every effort to provide access to materials that are deemed unsuitable for purchase through existing interlibrary loan, digital lending, and open access resources.