Cornell University Library Collection Development Manual: Approval Plans

Coutts CUL Primary Approval Plan

Coutts Primary Approval Plan Publisher List

NOTE: Coutts does not maintain an "Excluded Publishers" list.

Approval plan books and those on blanket order do not have order records created for them in Voyager because they will come automatically and do not need to be ordered individually. Normally they do not show up in Voyager until they arrive.

The Acquisitions Department has statistics from vendors with whom we have approval plans.

See the Approval & Blanket Order Log for a list of vendors' and publishers' approval and blanket order plans. (Caveat: it hasn't been updated since 2004 and contains information that may no longer be accurate.)

Coutts Approval Plan
The largest approval plan at CUL is with Coutts. It is a publisher-based plan, meaning that we receive books published from certain designated publishers automatically, based on the profile we have set up with Coutts. In fact there is more than one plan, but the one you will be most concerned with is called CORNU. Since the finalization of the shelf-ready approval plan -- under which library locations and call numbers are applied by Coutts before shipment -- approval books are sent directly from LTS to individual library units, where they may or may not be available for selector review before being shelved. Olin approval books are shelved in the public New Books section (just outside the cafe), along with recently received firm orders, in call number order. They remain there for one week until Collection Management staff refresh the section with new arrivals. This is done each Wednesday morning.

Mann selectors have the option of funding Coutts approval books with endowments. See Approval Book Transfers to Endowments: Instructions for Mann Selectors Reviewing [Yankee] Books.

Coutts Primary Approval Plan (CORNU) Publishers List

Returns.
In general, vendors expect some returns, especially when the plan is just getting started. If there are many returns, the profile may have to be adjusted. In practice, we keep almost everything. If the book is very cheap, it may cost more to send it back than to keep it. Note that Coutts approval plan books which have been pre-labeled cannot be returned unless the error can be directly attributed to the vendor.

Review shelves.
· Coutts books received on approval are shelf-ready and no longer staged for selector review in 110 Olin. They are sent directly to unit libraries. Olin approvals are shelved in the New Books section in the north Reference reading room and are refreshed each Wednesday morning.

Other vendors’ plans. You will know what they are in your subjects. Look at these books to know what is coming in on the plan. Fund them and keep the copies of the invoices that are with the books. These can be useful for monitoring the plan.

Monitoring approval plans.
You monitor approval plans by looking at the books as they come in, conscious of their conformity to the profile. The invoices that come with individual plans are useful over time, as are the reports that most vendors supply quarterly. If you have a publisher-based plan for your subjects, you could check what has been received against a publisher’s catalog if you want to be sure we are getting everything through the plan. Discuss adjustments to the plan with Acquisitions.