Library Services for Faculty

Faculty may request materials for the collection or use the Library's forms to request textbooks for upcoming semesters.

Page Contents:

• Requesting Materials for the Library Collection
• Requesting Textbooks for Courses

Requesting Materials for the Library Collection

Faculty may recommend material for the Library to purchase at any time. The Library will consider requests for online databases, e-journal subscriptions, eBooks, multimedia (streaming films, image collections), and a limited selection of physical materials such as games and gaming equipment or items deemed necessary for the curriculum that are only available in physical format. 

Individual eBooks and other non-subscription items that cost less than $500 may be purchased immediately if the budget allows. Subscription requests such as databases and journal subscriptions are added to a "wish list" and evaluated for content quality, relevance to the curriculum, uniqueness of content compared to materials already in the library collection, and cost. A trial may be required to get feedback about the resource before a purchase decision can be made. Subscriptions that are not added in the year they are requested will be re-evaluated in subsequent fiscal years. For more information, see the Library's Collection Development Policy.

Requesting Textbooks for Courses

Faculty may request textbooks for students to purchase for upcoming courses at any time. Students can then purchase the textbooks from the Harrisburg University Bookstore.

Desk/Review copies must be requested by the course instructor directly from the book's publisher. They are not made available to library staff in order to prevent cataloging and lending. Some publishers prevent textbook donations to libraries.

Textbooks needed for courses must be submitted to the bookstore before the course opens for registration. As with all colleges that receive federal student financial aid, Harrisburg University is legally required to notify students of their textbook listings when registration opens. Requests that are not submitted by deadline may not be available in time for the start of classes which is a violation of financial aid requirements and may result in students receiving their textbooks weeks after the course begins.

Textbook forms do not need to be submitted if no textbooks are required for the upcoming term.

For planning purposes, deadlines for textbook requests for the academic year are as follows (use the following business day if the deadline falls on a non-business day):