Ways to Save Your Library Money (Furreals)

If working for the Friendly Neighborhood Wexis Competitor has taught me anything, it's this:

it doesn't count as cheating the system if you understand how the system works. 

Things to Know When Dealing with Vendors



1. Where Every Subscription Is
For updated books/titles/etc., vendors will often offer quantity discounts-- but these discounts only click in if all copies of a title are on one account, under one release, and in the same place. Request a list of all of the titles your organization subscribes to, including all accounts with subscriptions, and see what can be centralized.

2. What You're Actually Getting
If your title list (which after reading bullet point one you should have. Keep up, folks.) has the same book five different times, only four of those copies are going to some other department, some other librarian, some faculty member-- consolidate! Why do you need to keep a copy of XYZ on hand if the professor/attorney/etc. who uses it has their own copy?

What about the titles themselves-- what kind of content are we looking at? Are titles A and B more or less the same? Which one is more recent/has a larger view on the issues at hand?

3. Company Policies
This one is for my profesh librarians peeps (holla at ya library-momma). For supplemented titles, there are often deals where within x number of days of an original purchase, you can get the release for free. Before you order a book, check when the next release is coming out, and if you'll get it for free or a discounted rate. Unless you need that title ASAP, waiting a week or two and saving a few hundred dollars might be a good trade off.

4. Discount Plans
Vendors like sending you books for review. They think the more they send, the more likely you are to keep them. Because of this, a lot of them will offer you discount on titles you *do* want to keep to let them send these things out to you. Look into Standing Order Plans or Series Subscription plans to see where you can save money by getting titles for review (and returning 90% of the titles with a prepaid return label-- where's the downside?)

5. Vendors Are Not Your Friends, But Reps Can Be
People who were mean to me on the phone got called "ma'am" and "sir" and told "yes sir I completely understand, I apologize, here's the price." They were dealt with politely, calmly, and as quickly as possible.

People who were nice got jokes, a friendly demeanor, and the extra second steps of giving them information they didn't know they needed to save money, make their lives easier, and make things run smoothly. You can catch more discounts with honey than with vinegar.


6. Cross Check Your Access
Especially within large libraries who have access to aggregate databases-- is this subscription your buying already available under something you're already paying for? Is this print book available electronically through a database you have access to? Do you need to pay for it twice, or can electronic do?


7. Send Holiday Cards (Even Electronic Ones) 
As a lowly peon in the organization, I soon gave up all hope of Christmas presents, but even an e-card signed by the staff at a firm I dealt with often made me smile and think of them fondly. These things matter-- your rep doesn't get enough of them to deal with all of the crazies during the day; send one and earn some brownie points.