Meeting faculty and student needs
When Mississippi University for Women was chartered in 1884, it made educational history as the first state-supported college for women in America. Today we offer over fifty academic programs to men and women from 27 countries and all regions of the U.S.
I discovered Alibris through Baker & Taylor as a link for items out of print or out of stock. We've had an increase in our book budget and now Alibris is a big part of our ordering. I love the free shipping and the ability to locate hard-to-find titles. I just wish I had discovered Alibris years ago!
MUW finds new titles, children's books and DVDs with Alibris
Our ordering is based on faculty requests. We start ordering in the late fall and like to be finished around April or May, well before the end of our fiscal year on June 30. Most of the requests are for new titles, but we also look for titles that have been out for a while.
The book budget is allocated by department. This year the nursing program requested educational DVDs and we were happy to find some of what we needed on Alibris. The education department needed a lot of children's books-Newbery and Caldecott award winners and others-and we ordered those through Alibris, too.
We have very good luck finding the titles we need with Alibris and in a lot of cases they are cheaper, especially since we don't have to pay shipping. An advantage of Alibris is that if an older title isn't available new, Alibris may be able to provide it used and in good condition, which still meets the needs of our faculty and students. We also find we get the titles faster than with other vendors.
We have had a great experience working with Alibris. Their customer support is superb-I call and my support specialist gets back to me right away. I love this company and look forward to working with them in the future.
