Procurement regulations put in place by the UK government require that the University purchases books under the terms of a tender agreement. This provides us with a number of benefits:
Favourable discounts and competitive prices
Book preparation for the Library (e.g. barcodes, stiffening for paperbacks)
Choice of e-book suppliers and platforms with standard licensing
Access to foreign and specialist book suppliers
Standard terms and conditions across all suppliers
The Library at Queen's is part of the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium, a consortium of UK university libraries, and purchases books under the terms of the Framework Agreement for Books, e-books and associated services which covers universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This enables us to obtain the best possible terms for library book supply.
