Book Purchase Requests

Current New College members may request that the Library purchase books, DVDs, CDs, and music scores for its collections.

If your request is approved, the Library will order the item from one of our suppliers, and notify you once it is available for you to collect and borrow from the Library.

Items the Library acquires in response to reader requests are the property of New College Library, Oxford.  If in due course you fail to return the book, or it it has been unduly damaged, the Library will charge you for the costs incurred via Battels.  By placing a book request, you are agreeing to these terms.

What should I do first?
How do I place a request?
What will happen after I have placed the book request?

What should I do first?

First, check our online catalogue, SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online), to find out whether New College Library already holds the item you are wanting and a copy is available for borrowing.  If it is, you do not need to place a book purchase request.  Instead, you can borrow the item via our ‘Browse & Borrow’ or ‘Click & Collect’ services.

How do I place a request?

If New College Library does not already hold a copy of the item you would like, or a copy is not currently available in the Library, please email the Librarian (christopher.skelton-foord@new.ox.ac.uk) — with your book purchase request, and include the following information:

• Bibliographical details of the item (author, title, publisher, year of publication, ISBN), using a link to a supplier (e.g. Blackwell’s or Amazon), where possible
• Your full name.

The email must be sent from your @new.ox.ac.uk email address.

What will happen after I have placed the book request?

• The Library will assess your book purchase request.  Requests are granted at the discretion of the Librarian, and they are subject always to the availability of Library acquisitions funds.  The Library reserves the right to decline a book purchase request.
• The Library will notify you whether a book purchase will be made or not.
• When the book (or CD, DVD, music score) is available, we shall email you to let you know you can collect the item from a book trolley in the entrance hall of the Library, and borrow it using one of the borrowing machines in the entrance hall.
  • You may not remove the book from the Library until you have borrowed it using one of the borrowing machines.  Please collect it from the Library entrance hall as soon as possible after we have emailed you, because space to hold purchase requests is limited.

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