Ordering and acquisition of new books

Before ordering we recommend to check the availability of the book on the library search portal Primo.

TalTech lectors and researchers can submit orders for new books all year long through the form below or from subject librarian at Information Services Division in room LIB-221.

The list of already ordered books on Krisostomus webpage. 

Fill in the order form

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Acquisition of new books is based on the research areas of TalTech and the curricula of engineering and technical sciences, information technologies, economics, natural sciences, and maritime studies, as well as on the library’s subject plan that is supplemented with levels of collection depth indicators.

• The fulfilment of book orders depends on the price of the item, number of copies of the book’s previous editions in the library’s collection and their usage, estimate number of users, number of students in the course (for textbooks), and whether a digital copy of the book is available. If necessary, the library will coordinate the details with the orderer to find the best solution for completing the request.

• Paper copies of books in foreign language will be delivered and processed in 4-8 weeks after the order has been placed. The orderer will be notified by e-mail or phone when the book is ready for borrowing. E-book order requests are generally fulfilled in 2-7 days, and the orderer will receive a link with access to the e-book.

• All new items in the library’s collection will be on display every Monday on the library’s 2nd floor. The records of new items, including the list of new books, can be found in the e-catalogue ESTER. E-books can be found in the library’s e-resources portal Primo.

CLASSMARKS AND TYPES OF PUBLICATIONS AND THE NUMBER OF COPIES

The library’s guidelines for acquisition state that e-books are preferred to paper books when acquiring items that are required for the university’s study programmes and research. Buying an e-book depends on the access model determined by the publisher and the price of the specific book, as well as on the estimate number of users that might be interested in that book. Typical access models used by publishers allow either 1, 3, or unlimited number of concurrent users. Acquired e-books can be accessed in TalTech network, i.e. the access of books is based on the IP of the user.

Although every order request is processed separately and the possible solutions will be discussed with the orderer, the following guidelines are generally applied to the number of copies (cp) per title:

Textbooks

- basic textbook in the textbook collection – 1 cp per 5-10 students in the course, either a printed book or an e-book (1 concurrent user):
          1 cp per 5 students for textbooks in Estonian
          1 cp per 7-10 students for textbooks in foreign language

- acquiring e-books with unlimited number of concurrent users is preferred

- additional copy in the open stack collection – 1-3 printed copies or 1 e-book (1, 3 or unlimited number of concurrent users)

The number of copies of basic textbooks acquired for the library’s textbook collection must be at least 5 per title. In addition to the copies in the textbook collection, 1-3 copies of the same title are added to the open stack collection, including one copy for in-library use only.

Scientific literature

- 1-3 copies in the open stack collection

- 1 e-book (1, 3 or unlimited number of concurrent users)

Periodicals

- Periodicals published in Estonia are acquired as follows: 1 printed copy, with access to online version if possible.

- Foreign periodicals are acquired based on the suggestions made by university schools, 1 copy, either printed or digital. In case of scientific journals, IP-based access is preferred to access based on user accounts and passwords.

- Taking into consideration the time spent on the procurement process of journals, all suggestions for annual subscriptions (January-December) must be submitted by the end of August of the current year.

Databases

When buying usage licences of academic research databases and collections, the library takes into consideration suggestions by the university schools, as well as the usage of trial versions of databases and feedback from users.
 

All requests and orders should be sent to the respective subject librarian.

Additional information: Kai Kalvik, kai.kalvik@taltech.ee

The library welcomes all books, conference collections, periodicals, and manuscripts that are related to the university’s research fields. When deciding whether to accept a donation, we consider the following:

• the subject of the item,

• possible interest by our readers,

• physical condition of the item,

• whether it would it be a single copy in our library/in Tallinn/in Estonia or not,

• and how complete is the annual set (in case of periodicals).

Single books for donation can be brought to the library’s 2nd floor service desk. If you would like to donate a large amount of items, please contact your subject librarian first and include a short description of the materials. 

The library tries to find the perfect place for each item. If we cannot add the book to our collection, then we will try to find out if any other (scientific) library would be interested in the donation. Books that are not accepted to our collection can be given to our readers at our distribution table for free-to-keep books or be put up to sale at the library’s charity book fair.

All donations that have been added to our collection can be found in the e-catalogue ESTER. It is possible to add a note about the donator to the book’s record.