FAQs: Purchase Suggestions

Please let us know! You can tell a librarian or fill out a purchase suggestion form. This form can be found on the left-hand side of your account summary page each time you log in to our catalog. It is our goal to purchase items that people in our communities want us to have, and we appreciate these suggestions! The process generally takes four weeks or less, and there is no charge.

A purchase suggestion is a form you fill out to let us know there is an item you want that we do not currently have. It is our goal to have items that people in our communities want, and your suggestions help make that happen! You can make a suggestion through your online account. Once you make a suggestion, staff will email you when a decision has been made. Every 30 days, you will have up to 20 purchase suggestions available to you. We will do our best to acquire any item you have suggested, and will let you know when we do. This is a free service.

No, both of these services are free for anyone with a library card. Learn how to make a purchase suggestion.

Purchase suggestions generally take between 2-4 weeks. Need help making a purchase suggestion? Follow our step-by-step instructions.

We welcome suggestions to add recently published books and other materials to the NCW Libraries collection that align with our selection criteria and collection development plan. While the majority of items we purchase are published by commercial publishers, we also consider self-published titles that offer unique local content and meet our selection criteria. Please see our Collection Development Policy for further information.

We receive many requests from authors and publishers to purchase titles for our collection. Books that are positively reviewed by a major review journal, such as Library Journal, School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, or Kirkus Reviews are most likely to be considered for purchase.

Requests from authors or publishers to purchase their materials should be emailed to collections@ncwlibraries.org and include the following:

• Basic bibliographic information, including the title, author, ISBN, publisher, and date of publication
• A link to your book’s website and/or links to reviews or other coverage if available
• A description of your book and the intended audience.

Due to the number of requests we receive, we are unable to notify you of our decision to add a title to our collection.

Donating materials to the Collection

Donated materials are evaluated with the same selection criteria as materials purchased for the collection. Please see Section XI. Gifts in our Policy Statement for more information.