Page 165 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Library Administration and Management

Notes 9.3 Procurement Procedure

Once selection is finalised the library has to proceed with the procurement of documents. Hence,
this section is devoted to the work of procurement, its planning and procedure.

9.3.1 Planning

Procurement has to be planned with due regard to matters like different means of procurement,
preparations and arrangement for ordering, like the choice of the supplier and the terms and
conditions of supply, the different types of orders to be placed, etc. These are the points elaborated
below:

Means of Procurement

Books and other documents can be acquired by five distinct methods. They are:

Gifts/donations
Exchanges
Purchase
Institutional membership
Deposit system

Since library can have unlimited funds for acquisition of reading materials appropriate to the
users’ needs, it is suggested that a library procure documents using all the methods, the preferred
sequence being gifts, exchange and purchase.
(i) Acquisition through Gifts/Donations: Gifts and donations constitute an important source
acquisition of reading materials in a library. Many a library has benefited enormously by
accepting gifts and donations. Perhaps, it is a good practice to solicit gifts and donations.
However, one must be careful in accepting them as it may cause administrative problems
involving the procedure of acceptance, technical processing, placement, and maintenance.
In addition, cost of maintenance should be considered before accepting gifts.

Generally, individuals bequeath their personal collections. While some may not put
conditions, others do. For example, they may insist that all documents (irrespective of
whether they are useful or not) should be accepted and also that they should be placed as
a special collection. This may not be acceptable to the library concerned due to:
1. Irrelevance of some documents to the subjects of interest of the institution.

2. Difficulty in maintaining as a separate collection as merging with the general
collection is more helpful.
3. Space considerations.

4. Financial considerations, like cost of maintenance, etc.
Thus, the librarian should make it clear to the donor, right at the beginning, that he is
willing to accept the gift collection only and only if he is given a free hand to take
decisions – of integrating into the general collection, discarding, exchanging, etc., –
regarding its use or otherwise. Hence, it is suggested that every library should formulate
a policy regarding acceptance or rejection of gifts.
In addition to personal collections, there are unpriced publications distributed free by
many agencies. These also come under the category of gifts. Hence, it is necessary that the

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