Booth Library brings in thousands of books a month to accommodate students at Eastern.

During February, Booth acquired 2,355 new titles, said Karen Whisler, head of Booth’s collection development.

On average, the library receives an estimated 1,200 to 1,500 titles a month to support Eastern’s curriculum, she said.

“Our (book) budget is based on our annual budget,” said Allen Lanham, dean of library services. “Booth Library continually has new materials coming in.”

Roughly $1.5 million dollars per year is spent on electronic resources, books, periodicals, microforms and other media collections, Lanham said.

Although most materials purchased by the library are for class supplements, some materials are for leisure reading and entertainment for students. Best sellers and popular magazines are somewhat available. The money used to purchase the materials comes from the university’s budget, part of which comes from the state and part of which comes from student tuition.

“We buy books with grant moneys, also,” Lanham said.

Currently, the library has an education project going, he said. The library received $4,000 in federal funds to purchase books on education for the campus.

In order to make sure the materials the library purchases are relevant to student courses, the library has bibliographers who specialize in specific academic areas. Each of the bibliographers has a master’s degree in a subject outside of his library science degree.

“We have 12 (bibliographers), and they do a variety of subjects,” Whisler said.

Each department has a library liaison who works with his department and a specific bibliographer to come up with materials that professors need for their classes.

Carlos Amaya, assistant Spanish professor, is the library liaison for the foreign language department.

“What I do is usually ask (faculty) what kind of books or videos or DVDs they would like to use in their classes,” Amaya said.

He compiles a list of books the foreign language department would like to have and sends the list to foreign language bibliographer Pam Ortega.

“She is a wonderful person because she gets almost everything we suggest,” Amaya said.

The bibliographers look through book reviews and purchase the requested books, Whisler said.

“The bibliographers know during the year when they should be buying and when new things come out,” Lanham said.

Amaya was appointed to be a library liaison five years ago when he came to work at Eastern. As a liaison and a professor, Amaya thinks the library’s method of collection development works well.

“It works with us because we usually get what we ask for,” Amaya said. “Our collection of videos and DVDs is wonderful. We have almost everything we need for our classes.”

The library relies heavily on students and faculty to request materials for purchase, he said. Booth’s Web site, http://www.eiu.edu/~booth/, contains a link to a requests page where students and faculty can fill out a materials purchase suggestion form and send it to the library electronically.

Most often, faculty take advantage of the request form, so the library will purchase books they can use year after year, Lanham said. Each request form is then sent to the bibliographer that handles that particular subject.