General Purchasing Instructions

Budgets are usually approved at the August board meeting for use beginning September 1. Budget figures are based on enrollment, projected enrollment, and/or needs according to accreditation standards. If your school has a budget need that exceeds normal allocations, your request must be presented to the library director no later than January, before budget preparation begins.

BUDGET CODES:

Approved library book and AV vendors, periodicals, and office supplies are on district bids. Every attempt should be made to use approved library vendors.

Maximum amount for Purchase Requisitions is $5,000 for elementary and middle school libraries and $10,000 for high school libraries. Purchases over these amounts require three vendor quotes.

Maintain a consideration file with all pertinent information needed for ordering: author, title, publisher, ISBN, LC#, requested by and review source.

NO STANDING ORDERS ARE PERMITTED. This would allow publishers permission to ship and bill you for any new volumes produced in the future. Funds may not be available in the future to cover such expenses. The district does not allow purchase orders to carry over from one budget year to the next.

NO PREVIEWS ARE ALLOWED. An example of preview material is when a sales representative brings you books, you look at them, decide which ones to keep, send the others back, and then issue a purchase requisition. This is in violation of district policy.

NO CONFIRMING PURCHASE ORDERS ARE ALLOWED. An example of a confirming purchase order is when books, supplies, or any items are in your hand and then you requisition them. In some rare, unusual cases, the director of Library Services can make an exception (in advance) for this.

KEEP A COPY OF ALL YOUR ORDERS.

Most book orders should be over-ordered by at least 30%, saying, “Do Not Exceed $XX.00” (with XX being the amount prior to adding the 30% of book titles). For example, if you have $1,000 to spend and books are $10 each, you would expect to receive 100 books. However, list 130 books and still say “Do Not Exceed $1,000.00.” This allows your money to be spent even if titles are out of stock, out of print, etc., yet will not get you in trouble if all 133 books are available. The company will fill from the top of your order unless you specify differently. If you have priority titles on your attached list, clearly indicate on the face of the purchase order how the vendor is to fill the order.

11.

Pay careful attention to when books are to be published. Do not order anything published after April of the school year in which you are ordering. These orders tend to go unfilled.

12.

All orders are shipped to the campus.

13.

Processing:

• Order items fully processed from approved vendors.

• Do not order MARC records or processing from any other company. Contact Library Services (397-8190) for processing.